GOVERNMENT proposals for a 25-year capital investment strategy leave the “door open to unlimited debt” and lack a realistic delivery plan, according to the chair of the States spending watchdog.
Deputy Inna Gardiner, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee which scrutinises public spending, said a framework for borrowing has not been clearly set out and that the plans are underpinned by “a broken delivery system” that has led to delays and underspends on capital projects in recent years.
Her comments come after ministers unveiled the Investing in Jersey programme yesterday – a long-term pipeline of projects intended to address what Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham described as decades of under-investment in the Island’s critical infrastructure.
Key proposals include replacing Highlands College, building thousands of new homes, upgrading sports facilities, redeveloping Fort Regent, extending mains water and drainage and a rolling programme of school refurbishments.
The investment programme will be underpinned by a new Capital Investment Fund designed to ringfence the required funding over the coming years.
If approved, the fund is expected to include around £80 million from next year’s States budget, rising to up to £100 million in subsequent years, according to Deputy Farnham.
But Deputy Gardiner said the current iteration of the strategy lacks clarity on how the fund will be managed and where the money will come from – warning that “the basics aren’t in place to make it work”.
“I haven’t been presented with a clear governance structure….So there are lots of questions that need to be asked.”
She also warned that further borrowing without strict controls could be “unsustainable”.
“There is a place for borrowing specific amounts of money for big projects, but the current plan doesn’t include clear rules.
“Terms like ‘time-limited’ or ‘affordable’ are used in the plan without a clear definition,” she said. “Without any limit on how much can be borrowed through the Capital Investment Fund, we have opened the door to unlimited debt that could keep growing exponentially if Government income falls short or project costs go up.
She continued: “Eleven years ago, Jersey had no public debt. Now, we are servicing a £1.14 billion debt. If we borrow more, it must be properly controlled, or we could end up paying larger and larger percentages of our revenues on interest payments.
“We need to ensure that it will not turn into an unsustainable plan to ‘re-mortgage’ the Island.”
It comes after the Government told the JEP that the fund will be supported by transferring existing capital budgets, reprioritising some day-to-day spending, and using budget surpluses when available.
Additional income could come from asset sales, property rents, targeted new charges – such as for liquid waste – and, in some cases, borrowing.
But Deputy Gardiner questioned whether the Government had the systems in place to manage such a fund properly.
“In 2024 alone, there was a £64 million underspend on capital projects, including £45 million unspent on the hospital.
“This isn’t just about funding – it’s about delivery. We have the long-standing problem of a broken delivery system.”
“The long-term goal sounds good, but the basics aren’t in place to make it work,” she added.
The Government intends to include the Capital Investment Fund in this year’s Budget, to be debated in the States Assembly in November.
