Can we afford our priorities?
FIVE amendments so far tabled for next week’s Government Work Plan debate should at least help to focus the minds of deputies in ensuring that the debate on the States’ priorities for the next 12 months is meaningful, and concentrates on the core issues.
There is plenty to talk about within the Work Plan but without the focus of amendments it could make for a rambling and ill-focused debate.
The States has already made it more than clear that housing is now the dominant focus of its activities and four of the amendments talk to that topic. The housing crisis should get a good airing – but its potential outcomes are less clear at the moment.
The new amendment addressing work on poverty is also timely and may show if economic concerns raised over secondary pensions remain uppermost in the minds of members.
But much work remains for the States to do in this next year and the remaining life of the Assembly, and most of it won’t even get a passing mention in debate. Population, transport, skills – will those priorities get an airing?
But probably most important is to consider how the States will pay for it all. The plan was originally calculated to need £560m. to fund major workstreams and an ‘ambitious’ capital programme. How much will be said about that next week? And is the money really there?