THOUSANDS of St Helier residents will see their rates rise for the first time in nine years owing to a ‘dramatic increase in the cost of living’, wage inflation and a lack of ‘rateable’ properties coming onto the market.
The 8.7% increase from 1.15p to 1.25p per quarter – which will affect 15,600 ratepayers – was decided in a vote at the Parish Assembly.
St Ouen also decided to increase its rate from 1.15p to 1.26p this week. Several other parishes have already decided to increase their rates this year – including St Peter (4%) and St Clement (10.89%), with only Grouville left to set its rates.
Both St Helier and St Ouen cited cost-of-living hikes and wage inflation as the rationale behind the rise.
St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft said: ‘After nine years of not putting up the rates, I think that’s quite impressive and something I’m very proud of, that we have kept them the same for years despite continuous increases in costs and staff.
‘Our main cost is our staff, because we run the St Ewolds Residential Home and the Westmount Day Nursery, and those two facilities have over a hundred staff, over half the staff of the parish. We have refuse collection, parks and gardens, street cleaning, and administration.’
He added: ‘There is always the impression that there are more rateable properties coming on the market in St Helier, but this year, whatever people may think about all the building, there is hardly any increase at all in the increase of rateable property. That’s because we’ve lost several hotels that haven’t been developed yet into flats.’
‘When a building goes from being commercial to domestic, it pays less rates, so the parish will get less in rates than it got before.
‘When it came to setting the rates, the only question was whether we had put it up high enough,’ he said.
Mr Crowcroft further defended the increase, saying that it was less than the current rises in the rate of inflation (currently 10.9%).
In a letter sent to St Helier parishioners, he wrote: ‘This year’s increased rates will enable us to maintain a good level of services to parishioners and to spend more on improving the environment of the parish, especially in our Neighbourhood Improvement Areas.’
At the Parish Assembly, it was also agreed to allocate part of the Rates Reserve to cushion some of the impact of inflation to ratepayers and that officers would look to further increase non-rates income for future years.
The parish rate is added to the Islandwide rate, which is collected by parishes but passed on to the government to fund welfare and has also risen by 11.25% (domestic) and 13.9% (non-domestic).
That Island-wide rate is based on the March RPI figure, which was 12.7%. However, the most recent inflation statistics from June show a slight drop-off in the speed of increase to 10.9%.
How do rates work?
At the 12 parish assemblies, the ‘principals and electors’ are asked to approve the accounts of the last financial year, which ended on 30 April, and spending for the next 12 months.
The Constable, supported by their Procureurs, will propose a rate, which must, by law, cover the parish’s spending.
Each property and piece of land has a number of ‘quarters’ based on its rentable value, which is determined by volunteer rates assessors. If land or property is rented, then the rate is shared between the owner and the occupier. Usually, Constables will propose two or three different rates and typically recommend one of them.
