Extending taxes on finance industry is no solution to our problems
I WOULD refer to the letter from Gloria Dudley Owen and Graham Guille published in the Open Lines section of the Guernsey Press dated 4 November ('Population increase won't help'). The letter concerned the Institute of Directors' suggestion that the island population should be allowed to increase by many thousands of people.
It is perhaps regrettable for the authors of the letter that it was published on the same day that the Policy Council gave details of a new and eminently sensible proposal to focus policy on maintaining the working population at an appropriate size to meet the island's needs in both economic and social terms.
In maintaining an appropriate-size working population the first objective must surely be to keep our own young people on the island by ensuring not only sufficient affordable housing, but importantly, providing financial assistance so that our own young families can aspire to be able to buy affordable housing.
In the past many islanders benefited from the 'homes for workers scheme'.
Personally I have always been grateful to the then States' far-sighted policy of supporting local families who were then able to contribute to the island, not only by their own work but subsequently by the work of their children.
Of far greater concern is the suggestion by the authors of that letter that all our problems can be solved by abandoning Zero-10 and increasing taxes on the financial sector on the premise that the finance industry will stay put as it has nowhere else to relocate.
Without wanting to seem the least bit derogatory, this is a naive sentiment. Once we start on the process of making our finance industry uncompetitive we will simply see an exodus of business and funds leaving Guernsey, with unimaginable consequences. The Isle of Man, Jersey and other jurisdictions on reading these types of sentiment will think that all their Christmases and birthdays have come at once.
In a recent radio debate a former chief minister and the current Treasury minister both made it abundantly clear that any talk of extending taxes on the finance industry would be dangerous and at the present time totally inappropriate. We need our finance industry to be successful and should encourage it to strive for growth.
The diversification of the island's tax base through seeking to encourage both existing and new business is, and must remain, a top priority but it will take time, so the message is clear, using the authors of that letter's boating analogies, 'don't rock the boat'.
MICHAEL HENDERSON,
Ma Carriere,
Le Bouet,
St Peter Port,
GY1 2AN.
mikehenderson738@gmail.com
