Authorities are in danger of creating tax double standards

NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD

Editor’s footnote: A response on behalf of Deputy Peter Ferbrache, president of the Policy and Resources Committee and chairman of the Civil Contingencies Authority:

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your reader’s letter. It deals with two topics which are not closely related so I will try to address each in turn. Firstly, the recent visit of the well-known head coach of the British and Irish Lions is something I have addressed several times now in media interviews and at the latest live Covid briefing. I’ve not avoided questions on it, and where it was clear we gave incorrect information on the process around the visit and how we had made it safe, I have apologised. But your reader, like some others, is opposed to the principle of the visit and I am afraid on that I must disagree. Our Bailiwick has had to be closed for a long time, and we have all been separated from family and friends, we have missed out on or cancelled big plans, and that includes your politicians and public servants. We have all endured those necessary restrictions together. But now, as we begin to open again – and I am extremely pleased we are reinstating the categorisation of countries and regions to make travel more possible – we were presented with a unique opportunity which could have opened the door to a whole new market for Guernsey in supporting elite sport. This opportunity brought with it the possibility of real sporting, cultural, business and reputational benefits. We could have done as your reader suggests, turn our nose up to it, and say ‘take your opportunity elsewhere, Guernsey is not interested’. But I will never support that attitude. That does not and should not in anyone’s mind undervalue the sacrifice we have all made because of our border restrictions. If the opportunity had been presented to us even a few weeks earlier, during lockdown or during the ban on non-essential travel, we may have taken a different view. But it came at a time when we had removed all on-island restrictions, our vaccine programme was progressing well and we’d set out our plan for removing travel restrictions. To turn down a real and rare opportunity, which came with extremely low risk, in that situation would have been wrong, in fact it would have been a complete dereliction of our duty to the people of the Bailiwick. The fact that your reader has decided to conflate this visit with how much tax they pay compared to higher earners in our community says a lot about their view of the world. It pains me that we continue to divide ourselves in this way rather than recognise that we live in a great place thanks to the different ways all of those in society make their contributions towards it. We should and do encourage high earners and entrepreneurs to be here, grow business, create jobs and pay into our public finances. Their contribution makes a big difference: A quarter of our tax comes from the 6% wealthiest residents and they contribute the same as the 60% lowest-earning households. When people talk about a ‘fair share’, they give very little thought to how most of us never through our entire lives pay into the system enough to cover the cost of the services and benefits we receive. We are all subsidised by those who earn the most. There is nothing wrong with that, our society is designed to work in that way and the successes of the wealthiest are so often dependent on the hard work and good ideas of many other people. But we cannot dismiss the contribution of our wealthiest neighbours either, it isn’t fair to do so.

What makes for a fair tax system can be a hard conversation, as it often becomes personal and confrontational in the way this reader has demonstrated. But in a way I’m grateful this letter gives me the opportunity to call for a more measured, rational conversation on tax, because we will need to have that conversation imminently. Our public finances are under immense pressure, and we are spending more than we generate as a community, meaning some very difficult decisions around tax and public spending must be made this year. Let’s make those decisions together, without vitriol or resentment and in a way that benefits all islanders.