Select a region
When I arrived in 1966, there was no finance industry in Jersey. Hard to believe - there was no Jersey trust law, no financial services regulator, very few banks other than UK High Street branches.
The term “tax haven” existed to describe a refuge for UK residents moving to escape excessive income taxes and death duties. The main industries were tourism, agriculture and attracting wealthy immigrants. The population stood at 60,000. By and large, people were reasonably prosperous and adequately housed.
The housing crisis and the "problem" of immigration
When I arrived in 1966, there was no finance industry in Jersey. Hard to believe - there was no Jersey trust law, no financial services regulator, very few banks other than UK High Street branches.
Pictured: Jersey turned to finance. Welcoming banks and the well-paid and qualified staff who were prepared to pay for housing.
The term "tax haven" existed to describe a refuge for UK residents moving to escape excessive income taxes and death duties. The main industries were tourism, agriculture and attracting wealthy immigrants. The population stood at 60,000. By and large, people were reasonably prosperous and adequately housed.
In the short-lived summer months hire cars proliferated and tourism was viewed as a nuisance, enriching a few at the expense of the many. It needed many employees and we "sucked in" thousands of Madeirans willing to work hard, to put up with poor accommodation and to accept low wages.
Old-fashioned hotels, unreliable climate and an expensive airport were our undoing. We turned, instead, to finance. How much better to welcome banks and financial institutions, requiring well paid and qualified staff, without a flood of tourists every summer? Well, we have the answer now.
Finance blossomed and we "sucked in" from the UK the necessary well paid and qualified staff, requiring decent housing and prepared to pay for it, as well as all the ancillary personnel to provide health, education and the necessities for an excellent quality of life.
Pictured: Politicians have tried to control population through many ways including housing control and manpower controls but neither worked. This will continue.
Over the years every aspiring politician, without exception, has promised to tackle the "problem" of immigration. They are still doing it. They will go on doing it. The results of their combined and misguided policies have been to create a housing crisis for the ordinary population, to make Jersey unaffordable for its own people and to be unable to offer decent housing to attract badly needed nurses and teachers.
They tried to control population through housing controls. It did not work. They tried to control it through manpower controls. Same result. Local people suffered as a consequence of such measures whilst immigration continued at about 1,000 nett arrivals, year on year, for decades. The truth is, we "suck in" those we need for work here and we pay them to come. That will continue. There can be no success for an immigration policy that purports to control events that are uncontrollable.
We currently have a nett arrivals target of 700 extra people each year. That is not a target in the normal sense of seeking to attract up to 700 immigrants. It is just a hope that no more than 700 immigrants will descend on us. We need the 700 extra, to fill urgent vacancies in health, education, the digital economy, construction, hospitality and government departments, as well as in financial services. We need them and are prepared to pay for them; they will come.
Pictured: Jersey have a net arrival target of 700 immigrants extra each year. We need these people and we welcome them. Politicians instead should work on problems that have answers, such as affordable housing for locals as well as immigrants.
So, who is to blame for this? Now, here is a refreshing response. Nobody is to blame. Some things just happen. Governments have a lot less influence over events than we are led by them to believe. Tourism fell away; finance replaced it. Get used to it.
Politicians pretend they have an answer to a "problem" that has no answer. They should address actual problems. They should be ensuring that ordinary people of the Island have a share in its prosperity; that local people, as well as immigrants gainfully employed, can afford a decent home (preferably without recourse to benefits); that there is an affordable legal system; that excellent education, health and dental care are affordable by the poorest in our community. We have a long way to go.
