IT has now been four months since Gerald Voisin, one of the Island’s most eminent high street retailers, was appointed to the role of Economic Development Minister.
His tenure has not been without some controversy: In August, he was taken to task by Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham for a letter to the JEP on the merits of scrapping the £13.59 minimum wage – a measure the shop owner perceived to be “strangling” the local economy.
A swift apology was drafted, issued and ultimately accepted, but not without a warning; another breach of the Ministerial Code and Deputy Voisin would be expected, Senator Farnham said, to tender his resignation from the highest table of political office.
In his first sit-down interview since being elected to the Council of Ministers, the retailer whose family has owned Voisins department store through five generations, insisted that it was never his intention to abolish the minimum wage.
“I was a bit disappointed that the editorial was hijacked as me saying I was to get rid of it,” he said. “I wasn’t. If you read my letter, it doesn’t say: ‘Get rid of the minimum wage.’
“What I was saying is that we need a broader policy response to the cost of living, and the broader policy response is that we need structural solutions.”
For Islanders tuned into Deputy Voisin’s election campaign, his scepticism towards one of Jersey’s most fundamental economic pillars may not have come as too much of a surprise.
In the wake of his anointment as the de facto frontman of Value Jersey, the entrepreneur enthusiastically extolled the free market virtues of the burgeoning political movement he was spearheading throughout the campaign.
His clear messaging and single-minded focus on limiting red tape, reducing government spending and boosting economic growth evidently captured the public imagination. On June 8, he topped the polls in St Helier North with a commanding 1,572 votes.
“I knocked on an awful lot of doors and spoke to a lot of people as well,” he said. “I could see that people were struggling, and I thought that I could stand back and do nothing about it, or I could get involved – so I got involved.”
He remains positive about his association with Value Jersey, despite ongoing media and public scrutiny about its relationship with The Messina Group – a high-profile political consultancy firm.
“It’s not a secret cabal,” he emphasised. “It’s just a movement to raise policies that we’re aligned on, which is that we have to grow the economy, make Jersey more affordable and spend within our means – they’re not complicated things.
“I’m sure that there is always going to be people that have a different opinion, but I think that that’s probably helpful for a democracy.”
Notwithstanding his impressive polling numbers in St Helier North – and previous experience in the States Assembly from 1999 to 2005 – Deputy Voisin said he was “surprised” by his immediate appointment to the Council of Ministers.
He is sympathetic towards his predecessor, Deputy Kirsten Morel, who has publicly stated since departing from the role that he struggled at times with the enormity of the Economic Development portfolio.
“It is quite overwhelming,” Deputy Voisin conceded. “I mean, you’re being pulled in a thousand different directions. Everyone wants a piece of you and your time, and you’ve actually got to be quite firm to say no.
“I think the portfolio is bigger now than it was when I was president of the Economic Development Committee 20 years ago.
“There’s also all sorts of other arm’s-length organisations, and then there is the whole arts, culture and heritage portfolio, which is in Economic Development as well.
“I think it is important, therefore, to make sure that our time is focused on the important bits, and all the bits that are going to make a difference.”
A range of initiatives are already under way, he said, to deliver a programme of economic growth for Jersey – one of which involves the transfer of a £400,000 events grant to Visit Jersey to help improve off-season tourism.
“The whole point of giving it to Visit Jersey to oversee is that we want to bolster tourism in the shoulder months,” he explained. “We don’t actually have much difficulty in attracting people in June, July and August – but other months, that’s when we need get people in.”
He is also keen to set into motion an ‘investment fund’, which Deputy Voisin said will rely on contributions from a network of high-value residents.
“It’s an idea that has been nurtured since I took this role,” he said. “It has come about because there are certain sectors of the economy that need investment.
“The idea of taking money out of the Strategic Reserve was a difficult argument to run when you’re also saying that we need to live within our means. So the next best solution is to attract private investors to do this.”
He envisages the fund being used in parallel to the Better Business Support Package – of which he said he is a “convert” – to unlock growth and stimulate the economy.
“The hotel sector in particular is an area where some businesses need investment,” Deputy Voisin added. “You can see that where investment has gone in, these hotels and establishments can charge more for their rooms, and that immediately improves productivity.
“[But] what you don’t want to do is start investing in businesses where the leaders of that business actually don’t have the appetite for change and they think that they’re just going to get an easy loan to fritter away.”
The minister indicated his firm belief that people moving to the Island from abroad – whether high-value residents or seasonal workers – are integral to the success of Jersey’s economic development.
“There’s a minority of people that feel our high-value residents are not important, and I think they’re very important,” he argued. “Not only do they pay a significant amount of tax in income tax annually, but when they buy their properties they contribute to the stamp duty.”
He added: “We also need people to run the services, to run the hotels, to run the bars and to run many aspects of Island life.
“My ancestors were immigrants – okay, we only came from France – but we were still immigrants at that time, and I think we need to do more to make sure that we retain and attract young people in Jersey.”
As for permanent residents, Deputy Voisin reiterated that his main focus is on “growing the economy” and “making sure that people are better off as a result of that”.
The retailer – who purchased the Voisins business from his father Gerald Francis Voisin in 1992 – was, however, reluctant to characterise the current cost of living pressures faced by Islanders as a “crisis”.
“I’m not in their pockets,” he accepted, “but I think that Jersey, along with the world – certainly Europe – is going through some structural changes.
“We talk about the cost-of-living crisis, I don’t think it is a crisis, because that implies a short-term situation.
“We are seeing the unwinding of globalisation, which is was what led to lower prices because manufacturing was done where the cost was lowest.
“Now we have got Trump’s tariffs, we have got war, we have got Brexit – all of this has thrown up tariffs, created barriers and stopped labour from flowing – and that is going to make life more difficult and more expensive.”
He surmised: “What we need to do is make sure that the policies that Jersey implements are policies that bear down on inflation.
“We can’t do anything about inflation that happens outside of the Island, but we can do something about the inflation on the Island – and Jersey’s policies have got to really bear down on that.”
In his estimation, governments around the world are “going wrong” by increasing taxes amid rising interest rates and a higher cost of living.
Asked to reflect on whether his political views could be seen as radically out of step with economic powerhouses like the UK, Canada and the US – where, for example, statutory provisions such as the minimum wage are seen as inviolable.
“I don’t think I’m radical, or outside of the box,” he replied. “I like to think that a lot of the sensible people in the world think the same way as me.”
