11 January 2024
May I start by wishing you all a very happy new year.
I hope that you’ve had the opportunity to take time to reflect
and set new and exciting goals for the year ahead.
Goal setting in government is as important as it is in business.
In a world of great expectations and infinite possibilities, we
have spent some time post-election identifying our priorities
and then through our government programme, checking on
performance.
So, today, I want to leave you with confidence.
Confidence in our future, in our economy, and in our Island.
It’s why, today, I’ll go beyond business and talk to you as
parents, grandparents, family members, and Islanders.
We’ll discuss issues that affect you now and in the future. I’ll
then set out our immediate priorities for the year.
We’re at the point in the electoral cycle where frustration sets in
and I am here today to take stock and look forward.
I can assure you that as a group of people who are ambitious
for the Island, the Council of Ministers are impatient and
motivated to deliver on our priorities.
Priorities that focus on the challenges Islanders face, as well as
creating opportunity and prosperity for all, so our Island
community can thrive now and into the future.
However, the gap between this Council of Ministers’ aspirations
for our Island and what we have achieved so far is bigger than I
would like.
As we are spending taxpayer’s money, the processes and
checks and balances are generally there for a good reason. But
it does take patience and persistence.
Before I talk about that gap between achievement and
aspiration, and look ahead to our priorities for this year, let’s
first highlight what we said we would do and have done.
Highlights of 2023
This time last year I was speaking to you about what we need
to do in our three areas of relentless focus: cost-of-living,
housing, and recruitment and retention. We couldn’t have predicted the unprecedented number of
emergencies and major incidents we’ve dealt with during this
time.
And, difficult as they have been, those challenges have made
our community stronger and demonstrated our resilience.
I would like to just stop here and recognise the work of our
public sector and take stock of their contribution to our safety
and well-being.
Their response and management of these incidents has shown
us just how well trained and capable they are, and it is right to
give them some well-earned praise and recognition.
So, back to taking stock of our first 18 months in office.
Cost of living
We’ve been quick to support Islanders through the cost-of-living
crisis.
We’ve put money back in Islanders’ pockets when they need it
most. Deputies Millar and Gorst have been instrumental in
putting this support in place.
We have also listened to feedback from you at Chamber, and
the wider public, and frozen fuel duty for a second consecutive
year, and eased back on increases to alcohol duty.
I know every penny counts – and I want to put pounds back in
your pockets – but let’s not forget that with our GST rate still at
5%, a £6 pint of, say, Guinness would incur 71 pence of duty in
Jersey. In the UK it’s £1.45. If people buy local, a pint of
Liberation Ale incurs only 50p of duty and GST in Jersey.
Housing
We all know there are issues in our housing market. We’re not
alone. Many nations are finding that they have simply not built
enough homes… and the combination of short supply and low
interest rates has caused prices to rocket way ahead of growth
in wages.
To tackle this, we have made progress by:
• Raising the bar to the discounted stamp duty rate for first
time buyers to £700,000. Yes, a HUGE figure. One that
illustrates the scale of the problem that prospective
homeowners face.
• Deploying the £10 million set aside for shared equity
schemes – to help first time buyers into home ownership –
the response for expressions of interest has been
fantastic.
• Investing £15 million to upgrade our sewage infrastructure
to complement the recently completed £67 million project
to update our Sewage Treatment Facility, which began
under the Gorst Government.
• And, your former President, Deputy David Warr, has made
policy changes to the Affordable Housing Gateway
criteria, enabling more Islanders to access social rented
homes, as well as bringing forward proposals to improve
residential tenancy issues.
Thankfully, one organisation that has been building and is
continuing to deliver quality homes is Andium. Yes, a company
owned by all of us.
Recruitment and retention
Of course, to do all of this we need people with the skills to do
it.
I know that areas of our economy are experiencing acute
challenges in finding and retaining skilled workers.
The majority of you here will know that only too well.
When we took office, we immediately secured important
bilateral deals to help with labour market shortages in the
hospitality and agriculture sectors.
We’ve also adapted housing rules to enable sectors, such as
care workers, to access housing that is provided by the
agencies employing them. But we appreciate there is more to
do.
In public services, there’s more to come in healthcare and
education by tackling vacancies in those critical areas.
We’ve already recruited an additional 47 teaching assistants
and 29 special needs co-ordinators.
And we’ve created 130 more homes for our key workers and
set up an accommodation service so that people like nurses
don’t have to spend part of their shift booking short-term
accommodation for their colleagues.
We’re also recruiting to increase the number of fire and rescue,
Ambulance Service, and customs and immigration personnel.
Set against these labour shortages, as an Island we’re close to
full employment but with hundreds of vacancies – we have a
structural challenge as well as a cyclical one.
As a small Island community, if we’re to remain a desirable
location for business, I recognise that we must have stand out
health and education services on offer. And I’ve already
mentioned my pride in our emergency services and first
responders.
We’ve also made a significant investment in the governance
and leadership of the whole health service.
Our turnaround team have now been here for a year. They’re
supporting us to correct the legacy we inherited.
The uncontrolled spending habits are being replaced with a
financial recovery plan. This will deliver £25m in financial
efficiencies by 2026.
Under Deputy Wilson’s leadership, we’ve introduced a
Freedom to Speak up Guardian to help support health workers
to improve the culture in this service.
And the Health Advisory Board, which includes a number of
eminent non exec leaders, is now receiving good feedback
after beginning to hold its meetings in public as part of a new
process of holding the health executive to account.
Working together, the Home Affairs and External relations
Ministers have successfully piloted a project to enable French
day trip visitors to enter the Island with their Carte d’identite.
This shows how we can help other nations to overcome some
of the post Brexit challenges.
We’ve strengthened our relations with the EU and many
nations in our first 18 months with a number of successful
visits, including that of the Canadian High Commissioner.
I mentioned earlier the progress that Andium is making, that
was enabled by changing the structure of that organisation so
that it could have greater independence. In ten years, it has
brought its existing property up to decent homes standard as a
minimum and set forth on a massive programme to deliver
thousands of new homes. This shows what can be achieved
through an arms-length approach.
We’re also aware that a lot of our infrastructure needs renewing
and in the immediate term the funding is in place to renovate
the Opera House, to develop Mont a L’Abbe school, to
refurbish our town markets, and to build a new primary school for the east of town, which in turn releases a site for a park and
underground car park.
These are all, of course, just the highlights, and we aspire to do
so much more from the many lessons – sometimes hard
lessons – we’ve learned. And I want to highlight some of those
here today too.
What we’ve learned
In our first 18 months, we’ve gained experience that will shape
our future approach. Firstly, we’ve had to deal with significant
legacy issues, such as “uncontrolled spending” in health and
the inaction of our predecessors, which I know frustrated most
of you in this room.
We came into government with a number of initiatives for our
first 100 days.
I think it’s fair to say that parts of the organisation surprised
themselves by the agility they showed when they stepped up to
the challenge of swift delivery during that period.
We‘ve also learned, in some cases, that it takes longer than
hoped to turn a good idea into a workable policy.
It’s certainly the case with our aspiration to ensure every
primary school child has access to a nutritious meal during the
school day, for example. The Minister for Children and Education is up and running with
several pilot projects and will shortly add an international
provider to our list of suppliers.
It’s already clear, however, that providing meals at a scale of
four to five thousand a day is beyond the existing Island
capability – it will take time to build this up.
We’re a team admittedly impatient for change. In some areas –
responding to the cost-of-living crisis and major incidents –
pace is essential, and we’ve proved that as an organisation
we’re good at it.
We’re trying to move at pace in all policy areas and the
ministerial team and the executive team are working closely
together to ensure we get the balance right in 2024.
Before considering some thoughts on broader issues affecting
Jersey, I’d also like to share a very important lesson learned.
In government you must try to reconcile and balance many
interests, often competing, on the same issue. This is
especially the case in Jersey’s current political system.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is a person I admire greatly, he
often speaks about disagreeing well. As we improve life for
Islanders, we should remember his words and yes, this is
particularly relevant this week: “reconciliation isn’t about
common agreement… it’s about learning to love one’s
neighbour as oneself”.
I’m afraid we haven’t always succeeded in that. Although, you’ll be glad to hear we collectively agree much
more than we disagree.
For example, our pursuit of more affordable homes and the
economic benefits it can generate brought us into conflict with
those who hold legitimate concerns about population growth
and the preservation of the built and natural environment.
I don’t have to tell you here that I’ve somewhat nailed my
colours to the mast in support of several big developments in St
Helier, including Les Sablons.
As the leader of a government that is committed to delivering
more homes and economic growth, I stand by my conviction
that Jersey needs those homes, and our economy needs that
activity.
The initial decision made on Les Sablons was disappointing,
and yes, I was annoyed by it.
But I recognise that it created an uncomfortable moment for
some of my colleagues and caused the public to question our
unity. My job is to keep us all on track and ensure that such
issues do not arise again.
So, while we won’t let up on our aspirations for this wonderful
Island, nor shirk the challenge of protecting the public purse,
there will be a greater focus on reconciling competing interests
and keeping a team that is focused on delivering its priorities.
Our mantra is one of delivery for the public we serve. That is
what motivates all members of the Council.
The bigger picture
Turning to the bigger picture, we’re faced with a difficult
economic environment, but I firmly believe this provides us with
many opportunities as well as challenges.
Once in government – and having the chance to spend more
time engaging with our longer-term policy teams – it’s clear to
me that big trends demand a more thoughtful and long-term
response from Jersey. We need to face up to decisions that
could shape our fortunes for decades to come.
I was aware, for example, that the 2021 Census returned a
lower population figure than most expected and that there has
been a marked slowdown in the growth of our working age
population.
That decline is a huge worry for business – and I’m sure you’re
all nodding in agreement – but it should also be a huge worry
for every Islander because we have full employment, and our
public finances depend on income tax.
I was also aware that the challenges in global trade and
security – including Brexit – were disruptive to the Jersey
economy.
So, what does this mean?
Well, it means that we should all be obsessing more about
practical ways to improve the productivity of the workforce by
embracing technology and less about the ebbs and flows of
immigration.
We’ve already announced specific grant support for all
business in this area and a tax incentive scheme to encourage
reg-tech in financial services in order to boost productivity, for
example.
From the beginning of this year, we have created a 60-day
exemption period for short-term business visitors.
Deputy Morel is leading the charge in this important area with
the Future Economy Programme.
Here’s an example of reconciliation in action: many in the
Assembly support our priority to improve productivity across the
Island economy. But they also raised concerns that the
agriculture sector needed additional support to cope with a
viscous inflationary cycle. We listened and we found a way
through negotiation with Assembly members to provide that
support.
Another major issue is the global rise in the number of senior
citizens, and this is a huge challenge for the health and care
sectors. We can see those strains today in many places across
Jersey.
For example, we often have medically fit patients stuck in
hospital beds because we can’t find them a suitable place in a
care home or community setting. At times, this can number as
many as 40 patients – but we’re on the case with a target to
keep this to a more reasonable number at any one point in
time.
It's one of many instances where we find ourselves reacting to
profound demographic changes that require us to be thoughtful
about the issues on the horizon.
That includes focusing on our long-term health strategy
alongside delivering new hospital buildings.
I’m just as interested in the right level and quality of service
provision to Islanders as I am in cutting ribbons on a new
building.
In fact, we need a more inclusive discussion with Islanders
about the future health care systems required to respond to
demographic and economic change.
The Health and Social
Services Minister will have more to say on this later in 2024. Dare I say, we may even need a “friends of preventive
healthcare” group, which is as active as our “friends of the
hospital” group.
And, finally, to building more homes.
It’s a localised example of
one of the areas we couldn’t see clearly when we came into
government.
We promised more homes, but without improvements to the
sewage network – a vital piece of infrastructure – we’re simply
unable to build the homes we want.
But, as I mentioned earlier, we have made progress on that too,
which will allow us to prioritise building more homes this year.
Council of Ministers’ five priorities for 2024
So, on to this year and I’ll close with five priorities for the year
ahead.
These five priorities, agreed by the Council of Ministers, put
Islanders’ needs first so you know we’re working in your
interests.
They integrate, and go beyond, our three areas of relentless
focus from last year to tackle the big issues affecting our Island,
linking, of course, to our Ministerial Delivery Plans and
Common Strategic Policy.
First: We will Promote economic growth and productivity.
We are enabling this by today announcing:
• Annual charges for registered and licenced permissions
will be suspended for 2024 & 2025.
• All employers can have an additional registered Control of
Housing and Work permission.
• We are doubling the size of the productivity grant policy.
More detail will come on these in the next few days.
Second: We will deliver more homes by developing the necessary
infrastructure, simplifying the planning process, and making
regulations clearer.
We will:
• Support the building of 1,500 additional homes consistent
with the current Island Plan.
• Upgrade the drainage network to enable future economic
development.
• Quadruple the connection rate for homes that are not on
mains water.
I have no doubt that we will see action this year and beyond in
our aspiration to deliver more homes.
And Ministers are laser-focused on dealing with the issues that
have slowed up the pace of development in recent times.
Third: We will improve Island health services through better
governance, services, facilities, and patient care.
We will:
• Achieve an overall 20% reduction in waiting times across
acute care.
• Bring the new healthcare facilities project forward for final
approval.
• Maintain the current figure of reducing delayed discharge
of patients to 20.
Fourth: We will do more for children and families to ensure all
children and young people have the best start to life, from early
years through to adulthood.
This year we pledge to:
• Have hot school meals available in all primary schools by
the end of the year.
• Pilot a community school model in three schools.
• Increase the number of foster places available.
• Reduce waiting times for ADHD and Neurodevelopment
assessment and treatment for children and young people.
Fifth: We will invest in St Helier.
Many existing departmental plans and projects have the
potential to change town for the better.
This includes further developments to:
• The Central Market – we are intent on moving Markets
investment forward by working in partnership with the
Parish and will be completing feasibility this year.
• The Waterfront.
• Building a new town school – we will deliver a much-needed school and offer opportunities to increase green
space and parking on those sites.
• Various public realm improvements, such as moving
forward our ideas for the Coronation Way which we hope
will spark Islanders imagination and increase cycling and
walking, especially to the east of the Island.
• A new plan for improvements to put the fun back into Fort
Regent. And there are others to create a replacement for
Rouge Bouillon School as well as Fire and Ambulance
Headquarters.
We will pull these and other economic development levers
together into one plan to revitalise St Helier for all Island
citizens.
Deputy Morel and Constable Crowcroft will drive forward this
vitally important regeneration of our capital.
To conclude.
These priorities address the early impact of demographic and
economic change I alluded to earlier.
We’ve made progress on a number of them over the past 18
months.
It has not been easy – with external and internal events
affecting our ability to deliver effectively – but we will accelerate
progress this year.
Through collaboration with Islanders and industry, the Council
of Ministers is focused on delivering and prioritising projects
that get results.
And we will deliver.
I fully expect you to hold the Council of Ministers and I to
account on delivering those goals.
It’s why this week, the Council of Ministers have agreed to
reduce the number of public sector projects.
It’s important for us to have the capacity to deliver on the
projects we desperately need as an Island.
By reprioritising in this sensible manner, we will shortly be
returning £30m to the reserves.
Whatever comes our way, we will not let up on our aspirations
for our wonderful Island.
We’re focusing on what’s important to Islanders, both for now
and the future.
And we will continue to work every day to create a community
that thrives
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