Spending cuts plan ‘doomed to failure’
Wednesday 1st September 2010, 3:00PM BST.
Senator Sarah Ferguson chaired the Scrutiny panel
RADICAL plans to cut States spending by £50 million over the next three years are ‘insipid, toothless and unlikely to succeed’, according to a damning Scrutiny report.
Just weeks before the plans are due to be debated in the States, a panel of politicians has cast serious doubt on whether the cuts will ever be achieved.
The group released its findings yesterday after interviewing every minister, including Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf, who ordered the cuts earlier this year to plug deficits caused by the recession and previous high levels of States spending.
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Some of us have been saying that for months.
Under the old committee system the States was spineless and not fit for purpose.
The new Ministerial system was constructed not to provide an effective mechanism for making political decisions but for the convenience of those that saw themselves as becoming Ministers and to please vested interests like the Constables and the country Deputies who would have been losers under any plan that delivered effective reform.
There has to be some cuts and they are going to have to come out of the bloated management side to try and mainatain services.
At the same time there will have to be tax rises and quite a bit of them and they cannot all be dumped on middle Jersey!
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How long will the rainy day fund last – 4/5 years then the proverbial will hit the fan.
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Who are the other members of this scrutiny panel? I only ask as their comments, such as “insipid, toothless and unlikely to succeed” are hardly a proactive demonstration of the unity needed to tackle this severe problem, which affects us all.
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You can’t have your cake and eat it.
The population will need to accept truly zero improvement in public services over next several years, no nice medicines that save little kids etc.
It’s these kinds of controls that are needed – the wealthy who’re running this shop lobby for, and get, what they want as they stroke the egos of the wannabe politicians and senior management of the states. We then all pay for it with our increasing taxes.
It’s got to stop. Going backward is ambitious, so just totally cap the budget for 5 years. No-one gets more than they get at the moment. They will need to work smarter if they care and can.
5 years of zero growth would have a good effect whilst we see how things settle with economic ramifications of credit crunch/recession over that same period.
I doubt they can pull it off. It’s very depressing if you think too much about it.
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Pip # 1. How right you are – the cuts need to come from within the inflated senior management posts. It’s either a reduction in their number, or pay cuts.
Then there has to be cuts in procurement of new I.T., vehicles, office furniture etc., building work – unless it is necessary maintenance and so on.
More needs to be done to seek alternative sources of income to the finance industry. The States must look at how the island can attract more tourism, diversify in agricultue and even look at developing knowledge based industries. Not all the eggs can be placed in one basket as in the past.
The island can no longer live a Rolls Royce life style on a bicycle budget, with politicians dreaming of grandiose schemes. They should adopt the kiss principal – keep it simple….stupid. Stick to the basics.
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Realist No. 3
It is somewhat ironic that the right wing one party system that has dominated the island for so long is now calling for unity.
Well, they can’t blame anyone else for the mess as progressives are vilified,ridiculed and never get anywhere near power.
Be a realist and accept that you have got us into this mess and unity behind your disastrous banner is the last thing which will get us out.
Why is is that you people have such a problem with accepting that democracy, a rather feeble version of which exists here, is all about discussion and consensus?
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I can see lots of cuts that could be made with zero public impact.
Health for a start: Rosemary Gellar and her sidekick with their annual surveys and endless preaching. The department that insists on food labelling laws and then goes and applies them insensitively, shutting down French traders in a French market.
Scientific research into global problems like the Verroa mite and Processionary moth – if the EU can’t solve it with their tens of millions we are wasting our time.
Agricultural subsidies to multi-millionaire farmers.
Benefits paid out to those who are not ill. If people want benefits and are not ill they should work for them: things like cleaning beaches and hedgerows or even cleaning States building for the minimum wage.
Simplify all taxes and benefits by merging Income Tax and Social Security.
Stop the States mentality of importing UK consultants and managers. The UK is in a financial black hole and we should not be even thinking of copying UK practices. I see even Tony blair is now saying that freedom of Information legislation was a mistake.
Oh, there are tens of millions that could easily be saved. It just takes courage.
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The political commitment to spending cuts is simply not evident. Madcap political spending of public money is a common theme. On the rare occassions that attempts are made to curb excess, the decisions are reversed when interested groups start moaning so the spending continues unabated whether it value for money or not. Look at the money wasted in the last few years, we hand public land to property developers on the whim of a minister, the sewerage system needs investment but a town park is the priority. We have income support, a means tested benefit but we are now going to increase the social security tax to pay for non-means tested benefits. The tax thresholds are now gone for individuals and still there’s a tax hole. So the politicans answer increase taxes. Stop spending first, then we won’t just end up with higher taxes, higher spending and bigger tax hole and please start thinking about the needs of the island rather than the current disjointed, sporadic lurching onto bad ideas that passes for governmental planning.
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Forgot to add, there are also little things.
Like having a policy of only renting out states property to locally owned (and tax paying) businesses. Why can the Potteries, Bean around the World or Mange Tout not run the airport coffee shop instead of Starbucks. Or the oldtourism site instead of the pasty shop.
In other words,use States buying power to support those who pay Jersey tax.
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I like the way that the right wing are calling for unity after decades of we will run it our way and the rest of you can go take a running jump.
The fact is that the mess is solely the fault of the right with their hubristic and incompetent policy making.
With one or two exceptions the whole of the government is drawn from a small and quite right wing group who are paradoxically addicted to high spending and empire building.
Most of them also suffer from what can only be described as delusions of grandeur. It only takes a pinstripe to mention “It will be world class Minister” and they seem to flip over on their backs kicking their legs in the air!
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Blue Knight #5
The financial services sector brings in 10 times as much revenue to the Island as any of the industries you mention. Diversifying without increasing the population to cover the new jobs in these industries would simply mean Jersey loses revenue. The Island should be encouraging as much of its working capacity into the finance industry as it possibly can, not away from it.
Trouble with States spending is about 80% is staff related. This means real year on year cuts can only be made by reducing staff and not just in management but the lower paid and traditionally sacred positions such as nurses and teachers etc. Then we’ll all be moaning on here that it takes too long to be seen in A&E and class sizes are too big.
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Dear Pip, I hardly call the levels of welfare that have been revealed recently ‘right wing’. They seem to me to be straight out of the Gordon Brown book of social engineering.
Personally, I would prefer a bit of right wing cut backs, like the coalition is doing in the UK. Starting with housing benefit.
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“Dear Pip, I hardly call the levels of welfare that have been revealed recently ‘right wing’. They seem to me to be straight out of the Gordon Brown book of social engineering.
Personally, I would prefer a bit of right wing cut backs, like the coalition is doing in the UK. Starting with housing benefit.”
Perhaps a better term for them would be conservative with a small c.
Long after the UK had abolished capital punishment Jersey kept it on the books despite the fact that there was no practical way to carry out it.
Similarly homosexual acts between consenting adults remained illegal in Jersey long after the UK and abortion remained illegal for a good thirty years after the UK act.
However they are very good at spending money and almost everything that the Jersey public sector does is proportionately bigger, shinier and more expensive than the UK.
True, part of this is due to our small size but
we have more police per head than anywhere apart from central London with its specialist forces and our spend per child on education is higher than any UK council.
Back in the eighties there were quite a few Jersey politicians who had a slightly fanatical admiration for Mrs Thatcher. But making the States run within a budget and even reducing the cost of public servies was met with complete incomprehension.
I have been watching Jersey politics quite closely for about thirty years now and I think I have a good idea what it can deliver.
Cuts are not one of them!
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The structural deficit is concerning for everyone regardless of their political beliefs and a reduction in States expenditure is necessary. The pressures of recession and the ‘hollowing of the state’ dictate that the Island must respond pragmatically to the new demands it faces since resources can no longer be guaranteed as they once were.
But I agree with the Chairman of the Corporate Services Panel when she suggests that there is a lack of strategic thinking and leadership from the Council of Ministers. The Comprehensive Spending Review should compel Ministers to completely rethink the role of government and adjust their aspirations to fit the economic context, as most other countries are doing. Instead we have the usual indecision and micro-management without any proper strategic vision for the future.
I don’t believe calls to minimise the responsibilities of the state are completely justified, but I do think in Jersey’s case that the States has overstretched itself and must recognise the constraints to its ability to act effectively. There is no reason why the States have to monopolise service provision, what really matters is that public services are guaranteed and made available, not how they are provided.
The States should instead adopt a pluralistic approach drawing on government, the market and civil organisation to deliver services and solve problems in the most beneficial way to people. The CSR should provide the opportunity to have a discussion about this and our future direction, but I see no signs that it will deliver long-term changes in attitudes.
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4 – I agree with you 100 %
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