Gavin Anthony St. Pier

Personal Statement

If you re-elect me as a Deputy, I will seek another term as President of the Policy & Resources Committee. I believe that Guernsey needs both continuity and experience in this leadership role as we face huge challenges including: the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the enormous post-pandemic recovery programme required for our economy, public finances and community and the post-Brexit UK-EU relationship and its impact upon us.

• Experienced: Chief Minister 2016-20; Treasury & Resources Minister 2012-16
• Qualified: Chartered Accountant, Barrister, Chartered Tax Adviser
• Led Guernsey’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Successfully delivered budget surpluses in 2018 and 2019 cushioning the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Robustly defended and represented Guernsey’s interests in the UK and EU

Manifesto

In the last eight years, I have never tried to be popular. Few people will agree with everything I have said and done but I have always done what I think is needed. My promise to you is that I will continue to do so.

I wrote in my 2016 manifesto: “My goal is that in the next 10 years Guernsey aims to become the healthiest and happiest community in the world…” As the COVID-19 pandemic has raged around the world, I am not alone in believing that our island has been one of the best places in the world to live through such times, which is a great basis on which to build and achieve that goal.

The priority in the next term must be Guernsey’s post-COVID recovery. If elected, I will drive our recovery by leading and delivering the Revive & Thrive action plans. These plans will recognise that the economy, environment, community and our health are all inter-dependent.

The scale of the economic shock and damage to our public finances is so large that we cannot simply cut public spending or tax our way back to a balanced budget. Instead we must grow our economy. To enable that growth we must:

• exploit the opportunities around green finance, the digital sectors and the green (energy, transport, agriculture) and blue (fisheries, marine and coastal resource) economies
• invest in our infrastructure including our digital connectivity
• invest and partner with business to deliver the enhancement of our seafront area and redevelopment of the regeneration areas, such as Leale’s Yard. Once the strategy has been agreed, we must ensure that we have an appropriate mechanism to drive forward quickly, without politicians meddling in every detail, slowing progress and consequently increasing costs

We must ensure full employment returns as quickly as possible by upskilling the local workforce, while placing special focus on older people and those in potentially obsolete jobs who wish to continue working and/or retrain.

As a small, open economy, we must maintain an internationally competitive tax environment with income tax at no more than 20%. Since 2012, I have led the considerable widening of the scope of corporate taxation. However, the current tax system is unsustainable in the medium term, placing too much of the tax burden on middle income households. The ongoing tax review must result in a tax system that maintains our low rate, is broad-based, sustainable and fair. This will require some tough decisions but the priority must be to protect low and middle income households.

Climate change is the existential risk of our generation. We must implement the approved Climate Change Action Plan to mitigate the consequences for our community and help position Guernsey in the outside world as a green haven.

While the public sector in Guernsey is small by comparison to other developed economies, we must continue with public service reform to ensure that public services are provided as efficiently as possible e.g. the creation of a single fire and rescue service.

I will continue to support:

• Enhancing our autonomy and self-governance by having Royal Sanction to legislation granted on island rather than in London and ensuring that our ancient relationship with the Crown is protected from interference
• Enhancing the open market as an economic enabler by removing unnecessary limitations on its use
• Revising the Population Management Regime to ensure that it responds flexibly and quickly to meet our economic and community needs
• Development of the Guernsey Institute
• Implementation of secondary education review recommendations
• Establish a Sexual Assault Referral Centre
• Establish a Guernsey Investment Authority to strengthen governance over investment management of the island’s reserves
• Giving individuals greater control over their own end of life options
• Treating drug use (particularly cannabis) as primarily a public health rather than criminal justice matter with regulation and taxation (like alcohol and tobacco) instead of prosecution
• Appointing political leads for children/young people and equality rights
• Matching housing supply and demand, particularly for key workers, recognising householders’ rights to develop their properties, while protecting the community from the impact of development, requires greater use of brownfield sites