Recovery depends on States unity

At the start of the month, as moves were being made to get the construction industry going again, the Development & Planning Authority put the brakes on planning applications proceeding to completion, insisting that consultation could happen only once people could view the applications at Frossard House again.

It will hopefully not be a sign of things to come.

Fortunately a few weeks on the authority has had a rethink and on a temporary basis made full applications available online so that consultation on projects can be opened up again and the wheels of the system roll on.

Another early bump along the road was the lack of a conversation between States-owned Aurigny and its political masters before the airline decided to axe its scheduled services until August.

Communication matters.

There will be competing thoughts on how and how fast the island moves through lockdown, but at some point travel links are going to be vital to get the economy moving and neither side should be second guessing what is going on.

Guernsey also does not want to find itself on the back foot suffering even more lasting financial damage while the world gets moving again.

On their own these are just two small examples where tensions have arisen, but so much now rides on the States getting its investment strategy right if the recovery is going to be swift.

These are unprecedented times in terms of the level of government support being used to prop up the economy, with that comes an unprecedented level of responsibility and a real need to break through the silos and red tape that can stifle so much.

Many back large scale infrastructure investment as one of the keys, for example, but that cannot happen if the planning process is not adaptable, or if States procedures for identifying and approving projects continue to stifle their progress as has happened throughout this term.