P&R accused of lacking will to control spending

A third of the Assembly backed Andy Sloan’s alternative plan to freeze spending at 2025 levels, which would have cut about £27m. from cash limits proposed by P&R, and several of those 13 deputies were excoriating of their new senior committee’s first Budget.

Deputy Sloan said that he saw little sign of P&R tackling a cultural problem in the States which he said equated spending with virtue.

‘The easiest thing in politics is to shrug and say “there’s nothing we can do”, but that’s not leadership – that’s abdication,’ he said.

‘We cannot keep blaming demographics, inflation or global trends for everything. They are pressures, not excuses.’

Treasury lead Deputy Gavin St Pier faced criticism for presenting a Budget with spending increases of inflation plus 1% after his party, Forward Guernsey, had proposed stripping 1% a year out of cash limits, although some members incorrectly calculated that policy at £24m. a year, when it was actually £6m. a year.

Andrew Niles warned the Assembly that it was about to make the same error as its predecessors by delaying tax rises and spending controls which it knew were necessary.

He claimed that a ‘holding Budget’, which was how P&R had described it, was neither what the States needed nor what the island wanted.

‘There are many people who still sit in this chamber who have ignored the problem, who never took the decisive action when they were given the opportunity to do so, and who were always horizon-scanning for hopeful solutions to cure our immediate problems – and all of our current senior committee is populated by these people,’ he said.

‘They speak of being hopeful, but there is no room in this chamber for hope. Hope is for an afternoon at the races. We must base our decisions on facts, trust and integrity.’

Deputy Niles was dismayed that P&R was prepared to use savings built up over many years to plug an estimated structural deficit of £77m. next year.

He accused the senior committee of relying on the hard work and wisdom of previous generations to avoid making difficult decisions today.

‘These savings were made and grown in Guernsey by Guernsey people who contributed their hard-earned money to our coffers, and these reserves are being blown away through fiscal recklessness,’ he said.

‘I cannot wait another year before we do something. We are living hand-to-mouth. I weep for our forefathers who built this great island and who would never have believed that we would be borrowing to live our daily lives.’

Deputy Niles said it was ‘a recipe for disaster’ that spending on healthcare was growing at twice the rate of income.

Neil Inder had been ‘absolutely staggered’ when he compared committees’ cash limits in 2018 with those proposed for 2026. He said some had doubled and Health & Social Care’s had gone up by more than £100m. a year.

He recalled several recent spikes in spending which were meant to be one-off items, such as the island’s Moneyval inspection and fighting Covid-19, and was concerned that such expenditure had not since been stripped out of budgets.

‘I’m going to support this amendment because it’s brutal, and if it’s successful P&R may need to come back with an emergency Budget and they could do that,’ said Deputy Inder.

‘I don’t subscribe to this idea that patients will die and nurses will leave and libraries will close. People who want to keep the bureaucracy going – and they do want to – their first base is always that we’ll start sacking front line staff.’

Chris Blin also rejected claims that the amendment would force cuts to services and reminded the Assembly that it included real-terms increases in spending on education and formula-led social benefits.

‘We are heading for this cash shortfall of £115m. and that figure should help us focus our minds,’ said Deputy Blin.

‘Yet we are faced with proposals to increase spending again without demonstrating that what we already commit is being spent effectively.

‘This cannot go on. It is not responsible, it is not sustainable and it is not fair.’