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Cost of living pressures, including a rise in the cost of some rubbish collection, mean thousands of islanders are being asked to pay higher rates this year.
Parish Rates, which fund each area's general expenses, from refuse collection to repair and maintenance of roads, are going up in seven parishes - with some increases outstripping inflation levels.
All households have to pay annual rates, with the sum based on the rateable value of land and relate to the number of ‘quarters’ that each area, including any property on it, is assessed to have.
Express takes a look at the changes, and why some parishes have been "forced" into increases...
The current rate of inflation in Jersey is 7.9% - and four parish's rate increases exceed this.
2021: 0.89p per quarter
2022: 1.01 (13.48% rise)
2021: 1.10
2022: 1.20 (9.09% rise)
2021: 1.12
2022: 1.22 (8.92% rise)
2021: 0.93
2022: 1.01 (8.60% rise)
2021: 1.00
2022: 1.075 (7.49%)
2021: 1.10
2022: 1.18 (7.27%)
2021: 1.00
2022: 1.05 (5% rise)
2022: 1.60 (no change)
2022: 1.28 (no change)
2022: 1.15 (no change)
2022: 1.15 (no change)
2021: 0.99
2022: Yet to be set
Although not charging the highest rate, St. Clement parishioners will face the steepest hike this year, with a 13.48% increase.
Last year, parishioners paid 0.89 pence per quarter but that is rising to 1.01p this year.
Constable Marcus Troy said that increasing wages and pension contributions had been behind the rise, which is approved by a Parish Assembly, together with the costs of updating the computer and telephone systems at the parish hall, which came with service contracts and licences.
“We have also seen a rise in the costs of rubbish collection, and we are also anticipating some extra repairs costs for the Parish Hall, most of which will be one-offs,” he said.
St. Peter parishioners have seen their rate go up from 1.1p to 1.2p per quarter, a 9.09% increase.
Constable Richard Vibert said: “We had predicted that the rate would need to rise at the previous Parish Assembly, a year earlier.
“This was delayed for a year and had we undertaken all the planned road repairs and maintenance during the year, so we would have been in deficit.
“We have a significant number of parish buildings and maintenance costs have risen significantly.
“We must also replace all the street lighting in the parish at a cost of £250,000 - this is a health and safety issue that has to be addressed as all the concrete lamp posts are 40 years old and have deteriorated.
Pictured: Parish rates in St. Peter have risen this year to pay for replacement street lighting.
“The parish has taken out a loan to cover this with repayments of £60,000 per annum - this is a significant factor which has resulted in an increase in parish rates.”
He added that the parish was also building up a reserve to make it less likely that rates would not have to rise in future.
Although not rising this year, St. Mary has the highest parish rate, at 1.6p per quarter.
Constable David Johnson said: “The main reason for being the highest rate among the parishes is that we have fewer homes to contribute to the overall costs of running the parish, compared with others, inevitably leading to a higher amount per quarter.
“The expenses of the parish obviously include those for maintaining parish roads and, while we may have the lowest number of properties of any parish, we are among those with the highest network of roads."
Pictured: St. Mary Constable David Johnson: "A greater degree of contribution from central funds might fairly be considered."
He continued: “It will be appreciated that such parish roads are not used exclusively by parishioners and, given St. Mary’s geographical position within the island, its roads are effectively a ‘through way’ – and, in some cases a rat run, for parishioners living elsewhere.
“This leads to the situation that the parish is responsible for maintaining roads whose state of repair is due in no small part to the degree of use by motorists other than parishioners and, in the interests of equity, a greater degree of contribution from central funds might fairly be considered.
“Another noteworthy area is the effect of increasing centralisation on parish funds.
“There are certain items of expenditure covering all parishes and for which each parish is, quite properly, required to contribute one twelfth of the total.
“These obviously translate into a higher amount per quarter when there are fewer properties being asked to contribute; in short, the higher the number of properties, the lesser impact on individual rates assessments and this obviously applies to other fixed costs as well.”
The rateable value of land is based on the ‘attributes’ of that land.
The law defines ‘attributes’ as the size, location, accommodation, condition and use of the land and the quality of any house, building or other structure in, on, under or over the land.
The rateable value of each area of land with similar or substantially similar attributes will be the same. Rateable values are proportionate to attributes.
Land is assessed on the attributes on 1 January of any year. If there has been no change to the attributes, and the previous rateable value is not disputed, then the rateable value will not change from the previous year.
The rateable value is worked out by volunteer assessors, who are elected at a parish assembly and sworn in by the Royal Court.
If someone rents, the owner (‘foncier’) and tenant (‘occupier’) each pay the rate, so if the rateable value of a property is 12,000 quarters, each will pay that rate. An owner / occupier would therefore pay the rate for 24,000 quarters.
Rates must be paid to the parish within three months of receiving a demand but can be paid in instalments to help spread costs over the year.
The parish rate is not the only one that households and businesses in Jersey have to pay.
When the States took responsibility for welfare payments, when Income Support was introduced, it charged the parishes with raising money to help fund it through an island-wide rate, which is collected by the parishes but passed on to the Treasury.
This rate is collected at the same time as the parish rate.
The domestic rate for all households, regardless of parish, is 0.80. Last year, it was 0.76p, so a 5.26% increase.
For non-domestic properties, the 2022 rate is 1.15, which is a 6.48% increase on last year’s 1.08.
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