The row has erupted as representatives of Guernsey businesses urge the States to make a decision in a fortnight, while the prospects of deputies seeking to delay a vote have also been raised.
‘We believe that decision can no longer be deferred, and that the island’s business community would rather see a credible package agreed than the question kicked into yet another term,’ said the Institute of Directors, the Guernsey International Business Association and the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce in a joint statement.
Some deputies have raised concerns about the level of interaction with the public. P&R is planning to live-stream a Q&A session on Facebook next week, but an invitation to parishes to host a meeting, which P&R members would attend, has been met with widespread confusion.
The States said that only the Castel parish had agreed to host a meeting, which has not been publicised, but St Peter Port said its interest was rebuffed over the size of the room while the Vale said it never knew about any offer.
‘Representatives of the douzaines who attended a meeting of the Douzaine Liaison Group on 5 June were invited to approach Policy & Resources if they wished to host an event relating to the 2026 tax reform package,’ said committee parish lead Steve Falla.
‘This is borne out by the minutes of the meeting. All parishes were present with the exception of Forest. Only Castel approached us to say they would like to host a meeting.’
Alderney also accepted an invitation and P&R will attend an evening meeting in the island on Monday.
St Peter Port constable Di Mitchell said that the parish had offered to hold a meeting but were told that the room it suggested was too small.
‘We offered the Brock Room, which would hold about 40 people plus presenters,’ she said.
‘My understanding at the time was that they expected significantly more people, so something like Les Cotils would have been preferred.
‘I was in the douzaine’s meeting and it was not clear to me that we would be expected to organise the meeting, it was just whether or not we had a room, and then P&R would organise it.’
Deputy Haley Camp believed that the senior committee should be doing more to connect with islanders rather than just using Facebook.
‘To leave this to the parishes feels like a missed opportunity for P&R to speak directly to the people of Guernsey,’ she said. ‘Facebook should be part of a strategy of comms, but it is not the same as face-to-face.’
She said she believed that the audience for the States’ first Facebook live-stream was less than 200. But P&R president Lindsay de Sausmarez said that there had been nearly 8,000 unique viewers over the course of a 90-minute session and the audience was consistently about 350.
‘The total number of people who watched at least part of the live-stream was far more than any in-person meeting could ever accommodate,’ she said.
Deputy Camp said she wanted to see P&R doing more public meetings.
‘Even if nobody turns up, P&R can demonstrate the efforts they’ve gone to answer taxpayer questions and concerns.’
Garry Collins agreed with Deputy Camp that Facebook was not the only answer.
‘How many of the older generations do social these days?’ he said.
Deputy Collins is vice-chairman of the Douzaine Liaison Group.
‘It’s only now two weeks until the debate and very late in the day to engage with the people of these islands. I mentioned this a few times before the publication to P&R’s external lead saying they should engage not just with douzaines, but everyone.’
Going to different parts of the island would allow engagement with different people, he said, and enable P&R to ‘look someone in the face and explain why this is all needed’.
But Deputy de Sausmarez said the committee was continuing to engage with ‘as many people as possible’.
‘I’ve had many meetings and conversations with individuals, industry bodies, interest groups and community organisations, and committee members have been active on social media answering islanders’ questions, for example.
‘Online events are a great way to massively extend that reach and include thousands more, so we hope lots of people will join us next week for our second live-streamed Q&A on our Facebook page, and take the opportunity to challenge us and ask questions.’