‘Secure’ business case needed for extra co-funding

St Clement Deputy Susie Pinel Picture: ROB CURRIE

Deputy Susie Pinel said businesses would need to apply for an extension and would be ‘considered on a case-by-case basis’.

More than £100 million has been spent through the government’s main financial support programme to subsidise staff wages but is due to stop at the end of September.

Some sectors, including the hospitality and events industries, have raised concerns over the impact of ending the scheme as the traditionally quieter months approach, following an already disrupted year due to Covid restrictions.

The Jersey Event, Entertainment & Nightclub Stakeholders Group, which represents several local businesses, has called for clarity over continuing support for the industry. The group said this month it had been ‘left in the dark and uncertain about what the coming months will bring’ and that the government’s response had been non-committal.

Appearing at a quarterly hearing of the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel yesterday, Deputy Pinel said the government could not approve a ‘blanket extension’ as it was ‘just too much money’.

‘It is not a bottomless pit of funding,’ she said.

Asked by panel chairwoman Senator Kristina Moore what resource had been allocated to process potential applications, Deputy Pinel responded that it depended on the extension and how long it was required. Senator Moore also queried a lack of communication with affected businesses, saying it was days until the scheme ended.

States Treasurer Richard Bell said that officers were considering what support could be provided to businesses beyond the end of this month, but added that schemes elsewhere, including in the UK, finished at the end of September.

He said the Island was moving from a ‘response phase’ to a ‘recovery phase’, which required the ‘right schemes’.

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