By Eliot Lincoln
The nomination period is over and later this week we will each find out exactly who we have to choose from in our district in the general election on Wednesday 22 June.
For those who have been involved in the election process, and especially the candidates who are putting themselves forward, I take my hat off to you all. Jersey needs change: it needs more fresh thinking and politicians dedicated to delivery. We seem to have a wide selection of aspiring politicians to choose from with a broad range of experience and acumen.
Those 49 individuals who are successful in the coming election will sit in our States Assembly and have significant challenges ahead of them. One of those key challenges that we (like many around the world) are facing is the dramatic increase in our cost of living – which many are already calling a crisis.
The task at hand is great, with a number of factors coming together as a ‘perfect storm’: the war in Ukraine, our addiction to fossil fuels, the repeating echoes of the UK’s (can we now say ‘bad’?) decision on Brexit and what we hope are the final vestiges of the pandemic.
What we are seeing right now and will continue to see certainly through the rest of this year and into 2023 are dramatic increases in costs which cause spiralling inflation.
No one in our island is immune – the following is not meant to be exhaustive, but highlights some groups that are affected:
For young families, increased costs are finding their way into nursery fees and childcare costs, and some are being forced to choose family over career. This further risks heating our labour market. One recent example I was told of recently concerned a young family who already pay about £2,500 a month in nursery fees for their children who have been told that those fees are increasing by over 8% with immediate effect. That’s a huge jump. We must find better options for young parents in the Island.
For business owners, the cost of living increases also hit hard. All business owners are seeing a significant increase in their input costs, owing to supply challenges and logistics costs, and have little choice but to put up prices to their customers in order just to stand still as a business – adding to the cost of living for consumers. Some small business owners are being hit disproportionately hard.
For those approaching or at pensionable age, some of whom are asset rich but cash poor, they are simply not able to afford some of the most basic necessities. Many are not fans of means testing, but we’re reaching a point where this may be necessary. Any replacement for the Community Costs Bonus would include pensioners but would need to be means tested to ensure support went to those most in need. Providing it is done sensitively, correctly and inclusively, it will help us get the right resources into the right hands at the right time.
This spiralling inflation (the Bank of England is predicting UK inflation could hit 10% this year) will lead to an increase in interest rates, which will further increase the pressure on those with mortgages and loans.
So in our island we have a mountain to climb, and it’s not one that we can scale in one go, unlikely even in one term of our States Assembly. We must focus on the important and the urgent but we can’t do everything at once. We must assess our capacity to fix those things that need fixing as a priority and apply our resources to the areas most in need. Our incoming government, including our civil service, all need to be aligned to the job at hand, and single-minded in their drive to deliver. Co-ordination in our government has never been more important.
So I admire and appreciate all aspiring politicians but ask them, over the coming five weeks, when talking to the electorate and attending hustings, to consider the above. Consider our direction of travel as an island and the things that must be done for us to survive and to weather the current storm. We need to recognise the issues, prioritise and get on and deliver. We don’t have the luxury of an easy run in when the new Assembly is selected – we need to hit the ground running and work together to deliver the changes that Jersey so urgently needs.
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Eliot Lincoln, a director at Helier Consulting, is chairperson of the Progress Party.
