Tourism Development Fund: Rejection of Grant to National Trust for Jersey: Renovation of buildings in Pitt Street, St. Helier

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A decision made 14 August 2015:

Decision Reference: MD-E-2015-0069
Decision Summary Title :	Tourism Development Fund – rejection of a £300,000 grant to the National Trust for Jersey		Date of Decision Summary:	07 August 2015
Decision Summary Author:	Assistant Director		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	Tourism Development Fund – rejection of a £300,000 grant to the National Trust for Jersey		Date of Written Report:	07 August 2015
Written Report Author:	Assistant Director		Written Report : Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Subject: Tourism Development Fund – rejection of a proposed grant in the sum of £300,000 to the National Trust for Jersey (NTJ) for the renovation of buildings in Pitt Street.
Decision(s): The Minister rejected a recommendation from the Tourism Development Fund Advisory Panel that £100,000 be immediately granted to the National Trust for Jersey for the renovation of derelict buildings in Pitt Street, and that an additional £200,000 be made available as funding allowed.
Reason(s) for Decision: The Tourism Development Fund Advisory Panel is comprised of members drawn from the private sector who are charged with making recommendations with regard to awarding grants from the Fund. The original application by the NTJ was recommended by the Panel for approval based on the position that the funding would allow revitalisation of the Pitt Street area. After due consideration, and having received advice from Officers, the Minister was concerned that in this case there was a significant risk that resources would be devoted to financing a project that could be satisfactorily completed without the expenditure of public money. It appeared to the Minister that the NTJ had sufficient access to alternative sources of funding to undertake the renovation of the properties.
Resource Implications: No grant is to be made in this case.
Action required: The Minister instructs the Strategic Development Officer to inform the NTJ and other relevant parties of his decision.
Signature: Senator L J Farnham		Position: Minister for Economic Development
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Tourism Development Fund: Rejection of Grant to National Trust for Jersey: Renovation of buildings in Pitt Street, St. Helier

National Trust for Jersey – Foot Buildings

Report

Background

The National Trust for Jersey (NTJ) submitted an application to the Tourism Development Fund (TDF) during its Spring round in March 2015.

The TDF Advisory Panel which is made up of members from the private sector, considered the application during their meeting on the 24th April and again on the 1st May, following representation from the NTJ who were invited to the meeting by the Chairman of the TDF in order to explain the project in more detail and field questions from the Panel.

Following the withdrawal of the NTJ from the meeting the Panel decided to recommend that the project be supported by the TDF:

“The Panel discussed the application wherein it noted that the NTJ had presented a strong commercial case for the proposal which, when work had been completed, would revitalise the Pitt Street area of St. Helier. However, given the Trust’s request for £300,000, members noted that the matter would require Ministerial approval if the Panel agreed to accede to the application in full.

Although members had been minded to approve the application, due to current financial constraints the Panel decided that £100,000 should be granted in the first instance to the Trust. In the meantime the Panel agreed that the matter could remain pending with a view to it being referred to the Minister for Economic Development later in the year, dependent upon sufficient monies being available.”[1]

The recommendation of the Panel was reviewed by Officers prior to being presented to the Minister for approval.

Review

Officers from the Department reviewed the application from the NTJ for the Foot Buildings project and concerns were raised about the need for TDF funding for this project. It appeared that that the NTJ would be able to raise the balance of funding for the project without the aid of the TDF, and that it would almost certainly be able to complete the renovation of the Foot Buildings through leveraging existing fund raising options.

It was also suggested that once the renovation of the self-catering units is complete the NTJ will be able to derive significant rental income from the project which ought to be able to be utilised to help pay back any loans that might need to be secured against the buildings in order to complete the development.

Officers also noted that in the NTJ’s letter in which it offered to buy the properties for £1 from the Channel Islands Co-operative Society of 7th May 2014, there was no reference made to any potential need for TDF support.

Recommendation

Whilst Officers see merit in the development of the Foot Buildings and the regeneration of this part of St. Helier, they do not believe it would be in the best interests of the TDF or the Island’s tourism industry as a whole to provide support as originally recommended by the Advisory Panel.

Officers recommended that the Minister should not accept the TDF Advisory Panel’s recommendation of a grant to the NTJ Foot Buildings project for £100,000.

[1] http://jersey.com/business/TDF%20Minutes/TDF-Meeting-Minutes-1-May-2015.pdf