Simon Soar said he hoped that consumers would realise the price rises were not being caused by bars and restaurants trying to profiteer but instead the industry being no longer able to absorb the additional fees into their margins following an entire year of losses.
He added that he thought the price of food in supermarkets could also go up as the costs faced by hauliers and producers rise.
‘It is costing more to bring the food in and it is costing more for the food. Given that is the case, we are going to see prices go up. That is not our industry trying to make more money – they are probably actually going to be taking less money as they try and keep costs at a reasonable level,’ he said.
‘You will also see a massive increase in the cost of staffing because everyone who comes in from outside the common travel area will need a work permit and there is a significant cost associated with that at the moment. Just all round it is not going to be cheap. Life is going to become very expensive out there and there is not a huge amount we will be able to do about it.
‘What our message would be to locals is to ask them to have an understanding that costs are going to go up because of the impact of Brexit, Covid, the impact of a changing climate, recruitment issues – it is one thing after another. In the past the industry has absorbed these sorts of things into their margins but those margins do not exist like they used to.’
Earlier this month, Peter Le Maistre, head of the Jersey Farmers’ Union, said that new work permits and visas brought in as a consequence of Brexit could end up costing agricultural companies £360 per employee brought in from outside the common travel area – the Republic of Ireland, the UK and the Crown Dependencies.
And Mr Soar said although this was the case, Jersey was, for now, better off remaining within the passport check-free zone.
‘At the moment, we need to stay within the common travel area because of the way we move goods and people in and out of Jersey. To come out of that would be very difficult at this stage. I am not saying it is not something that could be looked at in the future but it is not something at this point we would be encouraging anyone to look at,’ he said.
‘We get over three-quarters of our tourists from northern routes so do we want those to have to go through full passport control and visa control?’
Last year, shortly after the pandemic hit, Jersey Gas raised its prices by 6.5% claiming that the closure of hospitality businesses – its biggest customers – had led to sales dropping by 45%.
Commenting on this, Mr Soar said: ‘I would like to hope that prices can be reviewed to allow businesses to operate in the best way they can at this stage. It is very expensive to operate at the moment and I think that needs to be clear.’
In the light of the expected reopening of hospitality, Jersey Gas were asked whether they would be reviewing their prices. The JEP did not receive a response at the time of publication.
