While islanders continue to face unprecedented cost of living pressures, a group of politicians set up to tackle the issue only met for the first time since March this week, it has emerged.
Grilled about the frequency of meetings of the ‘Cost of Living Ministerial Group’ by a panel of politicians this week, Social Security Minister Deputy Lyndsay Feltham confirmed that until Tuesday’s meeting, the group had not met since 26 March 2025 – a gap of over 11 weeks.
The Minister said that meetings had been rescheduled, but could not recall how many.
In March 2022, Express revealed that a Ministerial group tasked with setting policies to deal with inflation – the Inflation Strategy Group – had not come together or made any specific policy decisions since pre-Brexit.
Despite a 2020 report warning that Government “must remain vigilant at all times to ensure that inflation can be kept relatively low”, a request under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Law revealed that the group did not carry out any further work.
That group was later superseded by the Cost of Living Ministerial Group, which was set up in November 2024 and supposed to meet every six weeks.
Inflation rose to double digits for the first time in three decades in September 2022.
Since then, it has fallen steadily, in part thanks to fluctuations in mortgage rates, but charities and food banks are continuing to report record high numbers of islanders contacting them for support.
During this week’s Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel hearing, chair Deputy Louise Doublet asked Deputy Feltham: “Given that the Cost of Living Ministerial Group hasn’t met since March, do you feel feel that [the cost of living crisis] is a priority for government as a whole?”
Deputy Feltham replied: “I think its a priority for all States Members, to be honest.
“You don’t have to be sat in a specific group of ministers for a topic like the cost of living to rise to the surface.”
The aim of the Cost of Living Ministerial Group is to monitor cost of living pressures faced by islanders in general and groups most adversely affected, and to consider and develop policy responses to mitigate and address those pressures.
According to its terms of reference, the group is also responsible for overseeing the development of minimum income standards for Jersey.
Minutes of the meetings are not published in order to maintain a “confidential safe space that provides for frank, candid and open discussions between Ministers”, according to Government.
Members include the Chief Minister, the Economic Development Minister, the Treasury Minister, the Social Security Minister, and the Housing Minister.
Following this week’s update, the Scrutiny Panel said it was “disappointed” to hear about the long gap between meetings.
It said it will be writing to the Ministers involved to understand the reasons for the delay and to ask whether tackling the cost of living crisis remains a priority.
Panel members also want to know what plans are in place to address child poverty, pensioner poverty, and the high cost of living experienced by islanders.