Better quality of candidate is needed - Chamber president
The record of this current States shows that the island needs a better quality of candidate to step up for next year’s general election, the newly-elected president of the Chamber of Commerce has said.
Stephen Rouxel said that the current States had disappointed islanders over the past four years.
‘We’ve had nearly five years of what I would describe as well-meaning messages of getting things done that unfortunately didn’t transpire,’ he said.
‘We’ve had a number of years of very poor political decision-making and very poor political governance. What we are wanting to see is a better quality of candidate standing for election.
‘While we could take views on whether consensus government is the right kind of government, it’s the government we have, and that isn’t going to change before the next election. Therefore, we need politicians who can govern in a consensus government.
‘So Chamber will be looking at what those qualities are, and sharing that with our members, along with what we expect to see from prospective candidates around key issues for the business community on things such as taxation reform, how and why the economy should grow, and getting people back to work.
‘None of these are new, they’re things that we have been saying for the last three years – the messaging hasn’t changed.’
Mr Rouxel said that the biggest cost-of-living concern in the island was the cost of housing, and he was also concerned about the island’s approach to productivity and employment and policies that were both family-friendly and conducive to keeping people in work.
‘House prices are completely unaffordable, and I’m sorry to say for everyone who has been buying houses over the last few years and expecting property values to continue to rise, they need to come down,’ he said.
‘Our wage growth has not matched our housing growth, and that is unsustainable. In business, we can it “negative jaws”.
‘Prices are going up because of lack of supply, not because people have more money. So, I appreciate that some people are not going to want house prices to go down, and it’s not going to be fun, but it needs to happen.’
