Rescue package
Tuesday 20th January 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
MILLIONS of pounds of tax-payers’ money is to be pumped into the Island economy to stimulate the building, retail and finance industries, the Treasury Minister was expected to announce today.
In the clearest signal yet that Jersey will not avoid the harsh realities of the global credit crunch, Senator Philip Ozouf was due to announce the emergency fiscal measures in the States today. He was expected to tell Members that it is time to dip into the reserves Jersey has built up in healthier economic conditions.
News that the ‘rainy day’ which Islanders have long feared may finally have arrived comes after repeated, and perhaps naïvely optimistic, government statements that Jersey was well placed to weather the storm better than most jurisdictions.
Cash from the stabilisation fund is expected to be used to stimulate the faltering economy. The fund was established by the previous Council of Ministers as a safety net to complement the Strategic Reserve, which is more commonly referred to as the rainy day fund, if Jersey fell on hard times.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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How about initially doing something about the 25% increase in Electricity? That would make a huge immediate difference to all Islanders!
Wont hold my breath. Probably will lower the Tax Rate of 1(1)k residents!!!
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So Senator Ozouf’s continued desire for growth with no looking at long term stability has finally come home to roost as the taxpayers bail out the government. Ozouf should now be put is the same catagory as Bush / Blair / Brown / Darling. He can also continue to have his cosy meetings with the Bankers he cuddles up to so readily who also got us into this mess.
John Avery
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Typical JEP doom and gloom perspective. Next time why not, for once, try writing the story from a more positive perspective such as the fact the council of ministers had the foresight to set up such a fund for times like these rather than having to dig into the Island’s reserves aka ‘Rainy Day’ Fund?
How about stating the fact that this is what the Stabilisation Fund is for, i.e. to be spent, (if in fact it is spent) rather than making it sound like Jersey is dipping into its savings which is what this story clearly tries to purport?
The media in general is partly to blame for the slow down in the economy all over the UK. 24hr access to hyped up doom and gloom in a bid to sell papers/pull in viewers etc means more people have been overly thrifty than necessary causing the economy to slow quicker and more than necessary. The tone of this article is a prime example!
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This must produce the immediate resignation of the current Chief Minister. The recession will pass us by was the statement only a few months ago so how on earth can we believe his next prediction?
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Thank God the rainy day fund will go towards something positive to help pull the island through the global crisis. No more architects please and fancy ideas about incinerators. Let’s enjoy the Islands natural beauty and preserve it.
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bringing down the price of food would be another,its eat or heat option for a lot of us
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So we have gone from no recession to money being pumped in to the economy in a few weeks.
I would guess that the Ministers have some inkling of the statistics on employment and house prices due in a few weeks and they are not the cheeriest of reading.
So this is a preemptive strike to bolster confidence.
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Stabilisation fund or not Jersey is going to be hit full and centre. Did anyone really, honestly expect anything different ?
This has been coming for well over a year now. The Island is totally dependent on the finance industry which is at the eye of this global recession/meltdown. Moreover the house market here is even more overinflated than that anywhere else and the crash coming will have large numbers of people who have bought in the last four years with a mortgage in negative equity before it is over. I wouldn’t be surprised if in excess of a thousand positions across the Island are lost eventually (which may well include my own).
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It will be very interesting to see what those figures are Pip.
I think we’ll all be in for a very big shock.
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I would be interested to know what they will be injecting the money into. It’s not like it’s going to be injected into the banks to help them lend, or is it? Maybe there was more in the paper but i make do with the news on here.
They surely don’t need it in the states as they have our taxes which more than cover the money they spend or, and i may be being cynical here are they going to use that to help with incinerator for example now that the pound has crashed against the euro.
Perhaps they will offer loans to businesses to help them out.
Many questions but does anyone know the answers?
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This just proves that Terry Le Sueur has not got a clue! I thought he just said that there was no recession in Jersey. Welcome to the real world.
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this money must stay in the island. any work generated must go to local firms employing local workers( both with quallis and non quallis workers).
and not to outside contractors, who drive in drive out , pay no tax and take the money home.
”
the glass is half full”
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So from ‘recession, what recession’ to running around like headless chickens in a very short time.
Not much point in concreting over what is left of our green fields to build houses people will not be able to get mortgages on. There are hundreds for sale at the moment.
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it won’t work
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Faltering economy……but your boss said there were no problems Mr Ozouf! A good start to his new term of office. Oh how the mighty fall, and how quickly!!
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Headless chickens.
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If all you whingers are going to quote Terry Le Sueur, try and quote him accurately. He never said at any time that there wouldn’t be a recession, that is all in your imagination and being repeated to strengthen you gloom-mongers’ point of view. What he said was that Jersey is well-placed to deal with the recession, which it is. We can use funds from the rainy day fund, thanks to previous politicians with foresight. Guernsey can’t, because they don’t have the same reserves. That is something positive, but positive won’t do for you lot, will it? Now what else are you going to misquote?
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Is our Terry asleep at the wheel ?
Pro Active is best, Re Active necessary, In active then panic is what we get as our political norm.
States money will now be spent on propping up the companies of the fat cats.
Support for small business is what is needed small businesses employ 75% of the local workers.
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It should help to slow and decrease the effects of the recession but it would only be a temporary solution because the problems that have caused this recession will still exist. This is mimicking what Gordon Brown is doing for the uk economy but on a smaller scale. The uk economy might balance out for a while prehaps a few months but what happens when problems return. On the smaller scale the states will have no more rainy day funds to help people out. Mr Le Suer needs to be calculated regarding how and were he is going to inject these funds and to use them were they will be most effective.
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Joker (3). I couldn’t agree more.
If Ozouf is on the ball, he could invest (and I mean invest as opposed to spend) some of the Stabilisation Fund with a view to returning the capital (with a profit?) when things look brighter.
Local firms in trouble should be able go to the States with a business case for temporary part-nationalisation in order to survive this crisis. The States can then assess which are worthy of support, based on economic factors and on social factors such as number of employees, etc. When banks start lending again, then the firms can have the option to buy back the shares. Problem solved?
This obviously comes with a huge health warning….
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i think using it to meet the budget deficit in just one year might leave nothing left. those banks wont be paying taxes this year and thats a lot of money.
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Will everyone stop calling it the ‘Rainy Day Fund’ The Stabilisation Fund is NOT the Rainy Day Fund. The Rainy Day Fund is Jersey’s reserves!
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At Last !!
Realisation from our states that something needs to be done.
Please please, use it wisely, you can only spend it once
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Why is everyone blaming Terry Le Sueur for the state of the island – he’s only recently been appointed in Frank Walker’s place. If anything Terry Le Sueur has a good head for maths/economy and will steer Jersey out of the recessiohn – give him a chance.
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it make me laugh how we can put millions
into this but when it comes to somethings
there is no money in the kitty
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‘this money must stay in the island. any work generated must go to local firms employing local workers( both with quallis and non quallis workers).
and not to outside contractors, who drive in drive out , pay no tax and take the money home.’
Fine, then I hope islanders don’t get any British jobs either as we need our own to go to local people and I don’t want more jobs lost from the UK going to Jersey for ‘tax reasons’. Put up borders Jersey, then the UK will do the same back.
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Please support small business! Brave entrepreneurs create jobs
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How about doing like Australia. The government have given all families who earn under $92,000 per year a $1000 per child gift just before xmas to boost spending.
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Where do I sign to get my share of the money?
Of course I won’t get any; it will go to failing businesses and corrupt economic terrorists (banks) that’s it.
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This public money must be given out with very serious and binding guarantees attached, most importantly that it stays in Jersey. I can understand helping construction and other local industries but why are we giving it to the banks? Local banks are doing fine apparently (at least RBSI is). Do they really need baling out or will this money, if given to Jersey banks, be siphoned off and used to patch up the gaping holes in the balance sheets of their off-island partner/parent companies? RBSI may not need help but will it send Jersey tax payers money to help refloat RBS? That must not happen. Seriously.
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Lisa, why? Why should money always go to people with kids? People without kids are struggling just as much. Some of us aren’t having kids because we can’t afford it, maybe others should have thought of that before having them too.
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Nick
Companies here for tax reasons are purely following the model of supply and demand and has nothing to do with handouts. We receive no handouts from UK government expenditure so why should we give our government expenditure to the UK. We’re stitched enough by some UK companies refusing to remove VAT.
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nick i for one will not be heading to the uk, or anywhere for that matter.
the uk is in a very sorry state compared to us here.
if we were to to see a fraction of whats happening in the uk, we will of had a total meltdown.
i dont like seeing anyone loose a job.
the states money is jerseys money(we all pay itis). but it should stay in the economy.
how much of abbsentee landlords money floats out of this place?
i was not and will not be sugesting that we send people away.
i wonder what would happen if jersey went belly up , as we are a crown dependancy
would the british goverment help us when we wave our british subject passports?
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Maybe it’s time to scrap last years tax bill for the general public and bring ITIS upto date…
This would help Jersey’s economy and possibly help us through the worst recession since 1945!!
It’s very simple to do…guernsey and the UK have done it.
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Sorry Jambo I do not think you will find Gordon Brown has scrapped anybodies tax bills. He is out to get every penny he can out of anyone with any sort of income in the UK
Proper PAYE would not be a very sensible option and should have been put in place for all new entrants to our labour market
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Jambo
What a good idea,”asanti sana”
This one year lapse in itis realy hits people who have just retired and are starting life on a fixed income.
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