Government's biggest ever spending plan gets green light

Thursday 17 December 2020

States Members have today given the green light to the island’s largest ever spending package.

The Government plan was approved by 41 votes to five following a three-day debate in the States Assembly.

While politicians overwhelmingly backed the proposal, it didn’t come away unscathed, with several Members succeeding in changing it. 

Senator Ian Gorst yesterday succeeded in a bid to get a list of public assets that could be sold to plug the island’s covid debts drawn up. 

The Government already has access to an overdraft of £500m provided by local banks, known as a ‘Revolving Credit Facility’.

It’s planned that around £400m will be spent on the island’s covid response. Senator Gorst said it was right that States Members think about how to pay this back early on. 

The idea found favour with most Ministers, apart from Environment Minister Deputy John Young, who likened the move to “selling the family silver.”

Ministers also gave their backing to:

• Reinstating £100,000 cut from a programme to support care leavers
• £300,000 funding from the Climate Emergency Fund for tree preservation initiatives
• reinstating funding for a public service ombudsman (£1m between 2022 and 2024)
• allocating £159,000 to the Jersey Premium for disadvantaged children
• and establishing a poverty commission to investigate hardship on the island, which will see £150,000 given to Statistics Jersey
• a £50,000 review into how parishes fund public services to ensure taxpayers of certain parishes do not end up paying higher maintenance costs

The Government also tweaked a bid by Deputy Montfort Tadier for more funding towards the repair and maintenance of Elizabeth Castle which had been unexpectedly pulled, reducing the suggested sum from £2.6m to £750,000. The Deputy accepted the amendment, which was approved by States Members.

Deputy Tadier was also successful in ensuring that the 1% funding for arts, culture and heritage would continued beyond 2024. 

Meanwhile, bids to roll out a free school meals programme across all schools, green power subsidies and free bus passes for under-21s were rejected.

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