Gorst on cuts: “Failure is not an option”

Wednesday 09 September 2015

Jersey has no choice but to tackle the looming deficit in public finances and Chief Minister Ian Gorst says that for his team of ministers “failure is not an option."

Speaking to a Scrutiny panel days after independent economic advisers gave their seal of approval to ministers’ plans to tackle the £145 million deficit with a package of £90 million worth of cuts and £55 million worth of new charges, Senator Gorst said that ministers were committed to the task.

Quizzed about the proposals at a Scrutiny hearing on Monday, the Chief Minister said that some changes were already starting, and that more would come.

He said: “I do not underestimate the size of the task at all and I do not underestimate the context in which we are having to make these changes.

“We are already starting to see positive changes in the organisation, even if it’s only in small ways. I’m talking about the voluntary redundancy scheme, the recruitment management process that HR are doing and seeing fewer people in posts compared to last year, and that changes that we are starting to see through the technology programme.

“If we do not change and if we do not try to deliver the services that we are currently delivering for less to invest in the future then we will have the structural deficit that the FPP have warned us about.

“Sometimes, failure is an option because you have other money to access or other possibilities. In this instance, failure is not an option because we need to deal with the structural deficit.”

His comments come after the Fiscal Policy Panel – the team of expert economists that advises ministers and the States on economic policy – said that they were comfortable with the proposals by ministers. They had previously warned that cutting public spending too much and too quickly would jeopardise hopes of an economic recovery.

During the Scrutiny hearing on Monday, Senator Gorst was asked by St John Constable Chris Taylor if he thought the States were doing everything that they could to cut waste.

He said: “No, because we have not started to deliver results in every programme. But will they be doing that in future? I think the answer is yes.”