Back in January the States overwhelmingly agreed a proposition from Deputy Rhona Humphreys, pictured, that they should target a 1% cut in spending after inflation.
The call, which was seconded by Deputy Tom Rylatt, was supposed to involve a series of targeted measures, such as the widespread use of artificial intelligence and the removal of duplication.
Deputy Humphreys says the first of two options presented by the Policy & Resources Committee hits the target on spending but via the wrong route.
‘The amendment was never intended to mean a blunt 1% reduction from every committee budget regardless of circumstance,’ she said.
‘It explicitly envisaged sustainable, targeted savings while recognising that essential services must be protected and will continue to face unavoidable demand-led pressures.’
By contrast she believed that the more nuanced approach advocated by P&R’s Option B was far closer to what her amendment called for, but that it completely failed to achieve the level of savings demanded.
As a result, her political party Forward Guernsey will now look at introducing possible amendments to the Budget to get the savings programme back on track.
‘I welcome the proposed spend-to-save funding, but the focus now has to be on identifying recurring efficiencies without damaging essential services. Forward Guernsey will look carefully at amendments which can better reconcile those two objectives over the three-year period.’
If Forward Guernsey does place such an amendment it will be in direct competition with several others which are likely to be laid by the various spending committees to raise their budgets by even more than under P&R’s more generous alternative.
One of those considering such an amendment is the Employment & Social Security Committee, on which two members of Forward Guernsey, Deputies Tom Rylatt and Gavin St Pier, sit.
A number of committee presidents are warning that unless they get more cash, frontline services are under threat.