SOCIAL SECURITY contributions will have to rise further and support be withdrawn from low-value industries for the island to maintain its new target population. The stark message came after the States yesterday endorsed a strategy for maintaining a population of about 60,000.
Members backed Deputy Peter Roffey’s amendment to the Policy Council’s report. That had proposed allowing the population to rise above 64,000 through net inward migration of about 200 a year, before bringing it back to current levels by 2063.
‘I think what it shows is that the States would like to strive towards a stable population and that’s the strategic target,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘Whether that’s achievable or not is down to circumstances. It’s going to be very hard.’
Some tough measures would be needed to maintain services because of demographics.
An ageing population did not affect only the number of economically active people contributing to the economy.
It also had an impact on the number of social services the island required, he said.
‘But I suspect if we’d aimed for the 4,000 increase over the next couple of decades as proposed we would have ended up with more than that.’
Social Security payments would go up, he said.
‘What is social security? It’s us during our working lives making provision for a range of circumstances including illness, but largely our old age,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘If we’re going to live longer, the reality is we’ll have to work longer or save at a greater rate.’
He said trying to avoid that by bringing in young people was not a sustainable long-term option.
‘Whatever figure was chosen would have been aspirational. We haven’t got an accelerator and brake like in a car,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘A lot of it is driven by the economy but… if we fail, it should be by having tried rather than saying we don’t want to do it in the first place.
‘We can encourage, through States intervention, the higher value-added jobs rather than lower value if you are careful where you give housing licences.’
He added that was not to say people such as nurses, bus drivers and shop workers were not important.
But sectors such as horticulture needed to be looked at because of its economic return in relation to the number of short-term licences.
‘There are some great horticulture industries in the island, but we have to look at the number of licences held and whether if we gave a greater number to another industry we’d get a greater return.’
Article posted on 27th April, 2007 - 12.00am
Loading ...
Most Commented: