Looking for a Strategic Plan..?
Monday 9th March 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
From Phil Perchard.
OUR government may wish to consider including the following action points as part of an overall strategy to protect the Island’s social and economic future:
- Recognise that as unemp-loyment rises to levels never seen before in Jersey, encouraging immigration to counteract the problem of an ageing population makes no economic sense. Even without high levels of unemployment, using im- migration to solve the problem of an ageing population is a mathematic nonsense. It simply dumps a bigger problem on to our children’s generation.
- Recognise that the management structure of the civil service is overweight, inefficient and costly. There are often too many levels of management. The senior managers should exist for the benefit of the Island. The Island does not exist for the benefit of the senior managers.
- Recognise that, as unemp-loyment levels rise to an unacceptable level, a population decline would be desirable.
- Set up a repatriation/emigration scheme for out-of-work local residents who would like either to return to their country of origin or who want to emigrate.
- Streamline our civil service by reducing the number of layers in the management pyramid and the number of middle-to-high-earning managers.
- Freeze pay increases for all civil servant managers earning over £40,000 a year until further notice. Revisit and renegotiate where necessary all £40,000-plus employment contracts.
- Recognise that too many essentially employed people have been brought into Jersey unnecessarily. Independently review the selection process whereby relatives and friends of senior civil servants are given jobs above oth-er local candidates.
- Train up more local people. Also, there are many fit, healthy, highly experienced 65-plus-year-olds who would want part-time jobs. Help them by creating more job shares.
- Move towards a more sustainable and self-sufficient economy. Try to understand the principles which underlie sustainable econo-mic theory.
- Jersey has vast untapped natural resources. Investment in clean energy production schemes must be an immediate economic priority.
- Support local business. We are now paying the price for the ‘all eggs in one basket’ policies of recent decades.
- Give financial support in the form of a loan scheme to local firms which are deemed to be sufficiently robust.
- Ensure that our Council of Ministers is knowledgeable, experienced and capable.
- Give financial support in the form of a loan scheme to new start-up businesses if they have a solid business plan and a realistic level of private capital security.
- Legislate against local mono-polies. We’ve already seen what happened to scores of local agricultural businesses when such a monopoly was created and allowed to operate without any legal challenge. Don’t let this happen again. Name and shame any politician who had a financial stake in any such monopoly.
- Lose all those 20th century, taken for granted, fundamental economic truths which have led to today’s global economic collapse. The world is not flat, the earth is not the centre of the universe, and perpetual, steady economic growth in a finite space is a mathematical impossibility.
Finally, look at the bigger picture. This is not just another recession. This is the beginning of enduring global changes which will fundamentally impact on the structures underlying Island life for generations to come.
Short-term fixes and policies designed only to maintain the status quo will cost the Island dearly. Don’t add to the financial, environmental and social mess that our children and grandchildren are going to inherit.
Roselea Farm,
Grande Route de Faldouet,
St Martin.
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Earning £40,000 a year is not excessive and please think how this would affect some people who work hard just to keep their heads above water.
In my case, I am a single parent with 2 children. I work in middle management earning approx £45,000 a year. Someone is a similar role in the private sector would earn alot more than that, and recieve a big fat bonus each year, but I enjoy the work I do, I believe I provide a good service to the public so I choose to stay. my choice I know.
Each month, after my social security, pension, tax, rent, school fees, utility bills, car payments, petrol and insurance I am left with approx £500 a month to feed and clothe 2 children and myself. Now, I could reduce that by sending my children to states schools and relying on housing to provide shelter at great cost to the tax payer, but I don’t. Again, my choice. I know. If there is anything left at the end of the month after food and clothes, I allow myself one luxury and that is to put what I can away in a savings fund for my children’s college.
Mr Perchard obviouslay has no idea how much some people rely on this small raise each year. I for one look forward to that small cost of living rise every June, working out to the penny what I can afford and hoping that not too many sacriises have to be made. And now, as my outgoings increase every year, Mr Perchard is proposing that my salary is frozen!
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Anonybean says:
‘Mr Perchard obviously has no idea how much some people rely on this small raise each year. ‘
I’m sorry but this is not true. The average annual family disposable income is less than yours.
I have two kids (18 and 14) and for most of their lives our annual family budget has been significantly less than yours(in real terms)
I do however think that single parents should be given more help in terms of tax breaks, rent rebates, chldcare, costs of schooling etc.
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Mr Perchard makes some interesting points but some cannot go unchallenged. He says that the civil service is overweight, inefficient and costly yet the KPMG report that benchmarked Jersey’s public sector found that the proportion of costs per capita of GDP compared favourably with other jurisdictions. Furthermore the Auditor General’s observations on the States Spending Review in 2008 said that senior civil servants were underpaid against the market and that the biggest margin was at the lowest pay grades! The evidence appears against you on this.
We’re all aware of the effects of overcrowding but finding an answer is difficult. To deal with the demographic time bomb of an ageing population it is necessary to reduce the non working members of our society that is the young and the elderly. The number of births each year exceeds the deaths so there is natural expansion, immigration is necessary to balance those Jersey born children who do not return to the island after their education.
I agree that we should encourage more employment of people who reach retirement age.
How would you ensure that the council of ministers is knowledgeable, experienced and capable? The US and the UK haven’t managed it – stupid idea!
What sort of loan scheme have you in mind when interest rates are at half a percent?
Agriculture hasn’t been a positive contributor to the economy of Jersey for more than a decade. This lame duck industry has soaked up millions of pounds of tax payers’ money and has been a major contributor to increasing the immigrant workforce. I say name and shame those who have taken the biggest slice of farming subsidies.
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Phil, please stand against your brother at the next election. Or at least put him right on a few things over breakfast.
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Wilson,
Thanks for keeping this discussion on a sensible level.
If I may I would like to respond briefly to the points you have made.
I do think that some of your points fail to take into account the fact that the global situation is undergoing fundamental change and that these changes are likely to be enduring. I really do believe that we need to reassess underlying assumptions relating to the way we take our Island forward.
I do not think, for example, that comparisons with jurisdictions whose economies ( eg the UK) are looking more and more unstable are worth making any more. Nor do I think that comparisons of civil service pay with the ‘market’ are reliable given that a lot of very high wages are paid in the financial services sector which is highly unstable and where wages and job security are in a state of flux. In fact the same can be said for most of the private sector.
I do agree that demographics are not straightforward and that we must strive to increase the working proportion of the population. But all that I am suggesting is that increasing inward net migration when unemployment levels become unacceptably high (if they do – and I believe they will) is counter- productive and will only make the situation worse.
On loan schemes I believe that businesses are having difficulty securing loans from financial institutions who are reluctant to lend – this is an area where government can help.
On politicians I would like to see a full CV of politicians made public and then the voters could make a more informed choice.
Your criticisms of the agricultural industry are not at odds with mine…just coming from a different angle. I do think that agriculture does have an important (though not major) role to play in shaping Jersey’s future but it too will have adapt and become a more sustainable and socially responsible industry.
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This letter was written in response to our Chief Minister’s request for the public to submit comments giving their view of a strategy for the future – and hence by implication of where we need to change past practice and policy.
This is what I have done. What I’ve said is what I believe. I am perfectly happy to enter into discussion on the issues raised in my letter.
What I will not do is partake in innuendo.
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Rob,I refer you to #6 (above)
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