Time to look at benefits, not just cost
£100m. a year sounds a lot for a cash-strapped government to find. But the island’s fiscal policy panel says that’s a must if Guernsey is to invest in itself and deliver benefits for islanders.
And although the three esteemed members of the panel say that it’s becoming ever more crucial to raise more money to pay for infrastructure investment, it’s time that the States shifted its gaze from a fixation about the cost of projects, to consider the benefits instead.
It’s perhaps the kind of thinking that might have provided a basketball and netball arena at Les Ozouets Campus, instead of trimming the project back under cost pressure to provide just the bare necessities.
The panel says the States, having under-invested for many years, now seriously needs to up its game.
It doesn’t currently meet its self-imposed spending target of 2% of GDP, but the panel says this needs to jump to 3%. That’s your £100m. a year.
But when you consider that one hospital extension price tag is £125-150m., that doesn’t sound all that much.
However all this talk is irrelevant without the money being there to spend.
But when, or if, a GST or somesuch comes in, it’s really time for the States to get serious on infrastructure spending, and serious about it too.
Doing it properly should, the experts say, also save us money.