What is mostly being built is unaffordable box flats with inadequate parking provision
IN this beautiful island of ours that has given me so many opportunities, it really is tragically sad that we now see such public dissatisfaction and negativity towards our government, and especially our second-rate public administration, from our young people. Many of them are abandoning the Island – it is claimed some 300-plus have now left for a better and more affordable life in another country.
Removal companies say have never been so busy with requests and enquiries, and all because of a failure by politicians to foresee or act upon years of knowing that the current retired population will double in size by 2035, and that the dominant finance industry would create a huge divide between the high-earners and the working-class professionals, which is why we now have such a high-cost island.
Many just cannot afford to survive, not only surviving domestically, but the business opportunities for young people have all but gone.
Jersey was known internationally as a great place to start up a small business, with affordable commercial rents and a great choice of small commercial units all over our island. But Jersey has changed, aided and abetted by our unpopular zero-ten tax structure that discriminates against local people in favour of foreign-owned trading businesses and commercial investors who then syphon their profits out of the Island tax-free.
International investors, like pension funds, now own huge tracts of commercial property in Jersey. They do not pay tax on their profits.
Now it’s personal tax for us, and it’s the middle working-classes – those still in employment or retired – who are paying the price.
Is it only me who sees the continued failure to acknowledge the fact that there are now no opportunities left for start-up businesses? Most, if not virtually all, the commercial places have been removed and built upon, thus that is why the whole Island now sees white vans and commercials everywhere in town streets. Car parks and parking areas that in years gone by serviced town retail, hospitality and tourism users have gone.
What is mostly being built is unaffordable box flats with inadequate parking provision – in fact, many with no parking whatsoever – and many now with a “kitchenette” in the darkest corner of the lounge.
As I drive up St Saviour’s Road/Simon Place it is just becoming so hideously built-up with these huge blocks, one upon another upon another. Can you blame our young people who won’t have children because their only option is flat dwelling? They, quite rightly, want a house.
Of course, I am not naive enough to not understand that this cannot be achieved for everyone, but the planning policies nevertheless leave much to be desired. In fact, Planning are a huge let-down for Jersey, with no vision or clear leadership policies in place.
Yet there are still opportunities to change course that could and would mean better housing and affordable options to assist keeping our children and grandchildren in the island of their birth.
Please read my column next week in which I will discuss this subject matter further.
Terry Le Main is a former States Member who is passionate about the Island.
