David Dorrity

Manifesto

VOTE FOR DAVID DORRITY ON 18TH JUNE!

Hello, I’m David Dorrity. I was born, raised and went to school in Guernsey. Upon finishing school I worked for the Civil Service and then took positions in what was a fledging Guernsey finance industry, saving to travel widely in my twenties and working in Australia and Japan before returning home to the island I love to raise a family – I have three children and live in the Vale.

I have been employed in the island’s pension industry for the past 20 years, specialising in the promotion and management of pensions and retirement savings plans for many thousands of employees of large international companies. I was most recently employed as a Director and hold qualifications in International Trust Management as well as in Governance, Risk and Compliance.

I am currently an active member of two industry bodies and was recently re-elected by my peers to sit for a third term on the Executive Committee of the Guernsey branch of the Society of Trust Estate Professionals (STEP), as well as on both the Executive and Technical Committees of the Guernsey Association of Pension Providers (GAPP).

Having lived with my parents on a housing estate, States and social housing and our communal support systems are of great importance to me. There was a lot less money to go around on the island back in the 70s when I was growing up, and I would hardly describe our estate as comfortable, but it served its purpose and was the safety net my family needed during those hard times when our tomato industry was failing and tourism was suffering as a result of the British Rail/Sealink strikes, in the days before Guernsey’s finance industry got up and running.

Through my own experience of growing up on the island, I know that if an islander falls on hard times, we as a community will benefit from the assistance we provide further down the line. My brothers, sisters and I, all grew up to have great careers and to buy our own homes. A lot of the boys and girls I grew up playing with on that estate now own their own homes and businesses and fully contribute to our community. I feel that I
have an understanding of all elements of our society and will be able to bring these life experiences with me when looking for solutions and making decisions on behalf of ALL islanders I’ll be representing.

I have fully enjoyed my time working in the private sector alongside many diligent and dedicated islanders but am keen to enter the Guernsey States Assembly as a People’s Deputy, and if elected, I will work closely with my fellow deputies to solve the issues that Guernsey is facing , such as fixing the island’s financial situation, the housing crisis, and the quick completion of the States schools building and renovation plans to provide a stable learning environment for our children.

 

DYNAMIC BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT: My roles with various industry bodies have been especially fascinating and led me to work closely with both the Guernsey Revenue Service and the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. This has provided me with a real insight into how our government departments operate and interact, and shown me that our Civil Service bodies are outmoded and need modernising to become more efficient, as they are currently structured in such a way that means we are sometimes slower to react to opportunities in the international marketplace than our competitors.

If Guernsey is to remain competitive it is imperative that we look at ways to remove obstacles to growth in the financial services sector which are often driven by the fear of falling foul of intergovernmental bodies. The island needs to take a less risk-averse approach to regulation in order to demonstrate to companies looking to operate here that Guernsey has a dynamic approach to business. As shown in the island’s glowing Moneyval evaluation, we are getting the important calls right and can build on this by updating the governmental services that support our industries.

At the same time, we need to encourage a diversification of the island’s industry base. The finance industry has served us well, but we are at risk of having all of our eggs in that particular basket, and past experience with the growing industry tells us that sometimes an industry can fail due to circumstances outside of our control. While we may not have the space for large factories, we need to create an environment that ensures
that local entrepreneurs are given every possible assistance to make a success of their projects. I’m sure there were those at the time who never thought the finance industry would do so well!

Guernsey is struggling with a high cost-of-living and inflation, and hampered in its ability to complete vital large capital projects due to financial pressures. To grow our way out of this situation we must optimise provision of support to business to do all within our power to attract -and retain- employers who will help us achieve the economic stability we so badly need.

 

FINANCES AND TAXATION: The island’s credit rating was downgraded by S&P in 2 consecutive years during the Assembly’s last term; they predicted that a squeeze on our public finances would be caused by a shrinking working age population, in turn threatening tax collection rates and increasing pressure on health and care services. S&P warned of further downgrades if Guernsey failed to implement tax reforms to stabilise its funding needs. S&P is an internationally respected rating agency whose independent appraisal of the island’s finances and economic outlook is a warning we would be foolish to ignore. Things need to change, we must raise more money through taxation.

I have read with interest suggestions that Pillar 2 may generate sufficient income to allow us to forego any further taxation. And I agree that it will increase our tax take from business, but while I do not have access to the figures the proposers base their projections on, I remain unconvinced that it will reach the levels of new income that the island requires.

Similarly, proposals to work with Jersey and the Isle of Man to revisit zero-10 and look to agree a zero-15 corporate taxation regime would go some way toward shoring up the island’s finances and may again result in there being no requirement at all for further taxation. But while this increase to the corporate tax regime would benefit the island greatly, to implement it unilaterally would result in our chasing finance businesses away to our competitors. I’m wary that agreeing an increase to this corporate tax with other jurisdictions may not be so easy... as we have seen with the ferries debacle we certainly cannot rely on this to happen quickly -if at all- and I would caution against doing nothing now in the hope that zero-15 will produce results at some future date.

After closely studying the competing proposals, GST-plus seems to be the fairest way that has been suggested to strengthen the island’s future financial position, providing as it does protections for pensioners and lower earners.

I’m no fan of resorting to raising taxes, but we need to increase the island’s revenue in the short term, and the progressive measures incorporated in the GST-plus proposal designed to protect pensioners and lower earners would shield the less well-off, such as young islanders saving to get onto the housing ladder. These measures include,

• a reduction in income tax to 15p in the pound for those earning up to £32,000 a year, and
• a new personal allowance of £15,000 a year free of social security contributions

A further bonus with GST-plus over a permanent increase on the income tax rate is that those islanders who currently don’t contribute due to living off their wealth -rather than income- will begin to pay towards the running of the island, and it would also mean that visitors to the island and the corporate sector would contribute as well.

At the moment, in an island with a sky-high cost of living, all islanders hear is ‘a new tax on EVERYTHING’, and though this is not the whole story, I can see why it is of course hugely unpopular!

If elected, I will judge any alternative proposal to a goods and sales tax on its merits – but I will not allow the decision on increasing taxation to be moth-balled, as I believe that delaying this difficult choice any longer will damage Guernsey’s reputation and lead to tougher actions being needed as we near the end of the decade.

 

EDUCATION: Our children have borne the brunt of the experiment to end selection without adequate preparation for a post 11-plus school system. These children have been failed by the States of Guernsey again and again, shunted from one location to another, with ever-changing teachers. A specific example of the failure to get the matter under control was the largely pointless ‘Pause and Review’ process that started with the outgoing Assembly.

Even now, almost 10 years after the vote to end the 11-plus, we have children who are about to embark on their A levels being moved to a temporary home at the crumbling La Mare De Carteret site while works on the new sixth form centre (at what was once St Peter Port School) are on hold. The finalisation of our school building plans needs to be treated as a priority for the next States Assembly.

Our children are the island’s future and need to be encouraged to embrace post-GCSE education be it through A levels at the Sixth Form Centre or much needed skills for local industry through vocational studies and apprenticeships at The Guernsey Institute/College of FE, and I believe that they need stability and to be provided with the very best facilities to make this an attractive option for them.

Recently we learned that the number of students transferring from the grant-aided colleges to the Sixth Form Centre are down from 29% six years ago to just 13% next term, which no doubt is in part related to Blanchelande College re-introducing a sixth form during that period - but I would suggest that the drop in numbers is also responsible for the decision to abandon this year’s flagship International Baccalaureate course. It may also be the case that these children are reluctant to commit to 2 years’ study in a crumbling school site not long ago described as derelict.

Against the backdrop of an aging population, it is a concern that our children are choosing to move away from the island after finishing their education here. This is attributed to many factors such as the high cost of living and unaffordable housing, but I would also suggest that the States failure to adequately prepare for a post 11-plus school system, and the terrible treatment that these affected young people have received from ESC over the intervening years, will not have filled them with a feeling that Guernsey is a place where they want to settle, raise a family... and school their children.

But we should not dwell on past mistakes, and if elected, I will do all I can to ensure that the State School system is given every encouragement and assistance to guarantee that the renovation and building works are completed swiftly, in order to provide a stable environment where our children can get the very best experience, and support they need to excel during their school life on the island.

 

HOUSING: It is imperative that the States work quickly with developers to provide affordable housing for our lower earners and young people, or risk seeing them move away. While it’s not States of Guernsey land, the example of the ongoing failure to get spades in the ground at Leale’s Yard is holding back the reinvigoration of the Bridge. The area will benefit hugely when the flood defence work is completed and the designs we’ve all seen in the Guernsey Press finally come to fruition, with a vibrant community living in the 300 new homes planned within walking distance of the shops on the harbourfront.

I had a similar thought while walking through Mill Street recently – it seems to have been neglected for so long, and with the move to online shopping that has hit the High Street it seems unlikely to ever be a shopping district again. It would make a great area for development as affordable 1- and 2-bedroom flats for our young people looking to get onto that first rung on the property ladder - again, creating an influx of young residents within walking distance to Trinity Square, town shops and central workplaces.

In an island with property shortages too many buildings are left vacant, and I would support discussions with landlords who allow properties to fall into disrepair over a sustained period. I would also look at measures to make it financially unviable for owners to leave properties empty and undeveloped for years on end.

Earlier this month we learned that the inflation rate in Guernsey has outstripped our sister-island for the first time in recent years and is nearly twice as high as that in Jersey and the UK. The cost of housing was said to be the main contributor to our high rate of inflation, which impacts on businesses’ ability to make profits and means that price rises for essential items are often increasing out of synch with our wages.

The failure to build impacts negatively on the market creating an environment where demand outstrips supply, and our high rate of inflation affects the rents and mortgage rates we pay. As a priority, we need to look at ways to create more homes, and as my own life experience has shown this should also include well- built and maintained States housing for those families who need this kind of support in our community.

The States needs to work quickly and more closely alongside the GHA to focus on providing affordable social housing for our lower earners, and for our young people, to encourage them to stay and work on the island. I will apply to sit on the new Housing Committee and will work fast with colleagues to free-up the barriers preventing the creation of much needed homes that are in harmony with our island while also solving the housing crisis that impacts on so many other areas of our daily life.

 

HEALTH: I have already touched on some of the challenges I see that are on the horizon in respect to the island’s aging population. I fully endorse the preventative measures taken by HSC in their support of initiatives such as the Health Improvement Commission’s work to encourage all islanders, but especially older islanders, to eat healthily and take regular exercise - and also to access non-medical support in the fight against smoking and obesity which can lead to chronic ill-health, which in turn results in time off work, adding to the island’s financial burden.

Most of all, I would encourage further HSC collaboration with primary care on how best to assist those without private health insurance who struggle to afford healthcare, to ensure that islanders are not discouraged from seeking consultation in the early stages of an illness, and leave it till it is a much more serious -and expensive- problem. While I’m aware of the restraints on Health spending due to financial concerns, I believe that providing better funding for early diagnosis actually saves the government money in the long run, while also creating a healthier population.

When it was first Introduced in 1992, the £12 GP visit subsidy accounted for 50% of the cost of an appointment with a doctor; today it is nearer to 15% of the cost of a GP visit. If elected, I will ask that the States review the GP visit subsidy, as I believe that the £12 grant for GP visits needs to be increased to ensure that islanders do not avoid dealing with issues as they arise due to the cost of a visit to their doctor.

 

ISLAND CONNECTIVITY AND AURIGNY: Guernsey’s connectivity is crucial to islanders, and also to our ability to remain relevant in the business world. The Condor/Brittany Ferries agreement was not without its challenges, but the direct link to France has already boosted our tourism industry with increased visitor numbers. While it is still very early days it looks like the States made the right decision for our island, even though it was regrettable that we weren’t able to agree a joint package with Jersey.

But what about our air links? It was right for the States to nationalise Aurigny in 2003, after BA pulled out of the route thus putting the Island’s crucial Gatwick slot in jeopardy. But a long time has passed, and while I know the airline staff to be hard- working and dedicated, other issues out of their control have contrived to make the airline expensive and unreliable over the 20 years since the decision to take it under States control. This topic comes up again and again when I tell people of my intention to stand for Deputy – “the States need to sort Aurigny out!”.

Is the island simply too small to run a commercial airline? Is it time to perhaps look for a partner firm to service the various routes, one who benefits from the economies of scale of running a larger enterprise with more aircraft and maintenance facilities? This option certainly needs exploring.

Would a longer runway in Guernsey attract budget airlines, and would the cost of creating one make it worthwhile? It would seem after the findings of the York Aviation review were published that it might just be an expensive way to cause a whole new raft of issues and certainly should not be considered before we need to look at resurfacing the runway in 10 years’ time.

P&R said recently that losses announced for 2024 will be absorbed by the airline rather than covered by another payment from the States, which I welcome, but I suspect that the main way that Aurigny are going to be able to achieve this is through increasing their fares.

So how do we deal with the issues that are facing the island’s airline today? I don’t pretend to know the answers or at this point to have all the detailed facts to make an informed decision. But I do know that Islanders and business need reasonably-priced, reliable and regular links to the UK, and the current service is not providing this. If elected I would encourage there to be a full review of what’s required to support Aurigny, while also exploring alternative air link options available to the island, because a business making £8million losses a year is simply unsustainable.

 

GREEN ENERGY PLAN: I have followed with interest the various proposals to make the island self-sufficient for power by making use of the natural resources that we have in abundance – the sun, wind, waves and tides. The ambitious plans for a wind farm out to sea off our south-west coast look extremely promising, and I would also explore ways to encourage the installation of more solar panels on our rooftops, and for these to be incorporated in new builds, alongside ground- and air-source heat pumps, and state-of-the-art insulation methods.

Guernsey is said to have some of the strongest tidal flows in Europe, and has been described as being an ideal base for tidal power generation. I understand that previous reviews have found it to be financially unviable but am aware too that technology in this area is constantly improving, and with that becoming more affordable. The island would do well to monitor the advances in this area and continue to work alongside specialist firms so that we are in a position to move forward when the economics allow.

We should also look into raising the funds required to progress this work through private investment opportunities, such as the successful Energy Co-operative groups in Spain. Guernsey is perfectly situated to become a world-leading example of how to generate clean low-cost electricity for its community. I would support moves for the island to work with specialists in the fields of renewable energies to achieve energy self-sufficiency – even to the point of producing energy surplus to our requirements so that we could become a green energy producer and sell electricity back to France via the cable link.

 

THANK YOU for taking the time to read my more detailed manifesto. If you would like to discuss any of the points raised in greater detail, my contact information is listed below – as well as details of how to find my website which has more manifesto content.

Telephone: 01481 240625
Mobile: 07781 136074
Email: [email protected]
Website and full manifesto: daviddorrity.com