JERSEY’S Economic Development Department is getting tough with employers who prefer to take on non-local staff. It has targeted the construction industry and warned them that employers will not get licences under the Regulation of Undertakings Law unless they can prove they have tried to employ locally-qualified staff.

Tradespeople have complained to the Economic Development minister that it was very difficult to find jobs despite the considerable amount of development going on.

Figures show that the vast majority of people working in the construction industry (88%) are residentially qualified, but the minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, said that he ‘would continue to monitor the situation, in this and other industries, to make sure local employment is the priority’.

Altogether over a sixth of all workers in the private sector in Jersey are non-locally qualified.

Although there has been some talk about getting rid of the much-hated law, it is still at the centre of States economic policy.

Isle of Man Finance, which promotes Manx business, has introduced a relocation programme for any wealthy individuals looking to move to the island.

This follows the introduction of an income tax cap of £100,000 for wealthy immigrants, which makes the island very attractive financially compared with the Channel Islands, which are now considering similar incentives.

The Manx relocation programme includes arranging discreet

one-to-one personal visits hosted by Isle of Man Finance

Jersey has a civil servant responsible for ‘high value residency’ who performs a similar task.

Tourism leaders in Jersey hope that the recent Jersey Live has put the island on the map as a music festival destination.

Condor sold 500 travel packages for this year’s festival, which attracted 11,500 festival-goers and national publicity. Organisers hope to extend the event to three days next year.

The Isle of Man Government spent £19m. on capital projects in the second quarter of this year compared to only £7.3m. during the same period last year. The total Manx budget for capital spending for the year is £98m., nearly twice the sum being spent in Jersey or Guernsey.

Jersey’s Treasury minister has withdrawn a suggestion to tax fuel for pleasure boats following strong opposition from boaters and the marine industry.

A total of 101 out of 104 responses to a consultation document were against the idea. The marine industry said that the proposed tax, which would increase the price of red diesel by 70%, would deter visiting yachtsmen and make local boating very expensive.

Bermuda, which is a highly successful offshore finance centre, is lagging behind Jersey and Guernsey in the telecommunications field, according to the chief executive officer of Cable & Wireless Bermuda, Eddie Saints.

Quoted in The Royal Gazette, Mr Saints said that Bermuda was falling behind because it had a ‘hodge-podge’ of technology arrangements based on an outdated licensing structure.

C&W has made a $205m. bid for KeyTech Ltd, the parent company of Bermuda Telephone Company which would merge with Cable & Wireless Bermuda if the bid succeeds. That would give it the size to invest in new services,

Mr Saints said.

‘Bermuda is losing its competitive edge. In other comparable jurisdictions that Bermuda competes with, (such as) Guernsey, Jersey, Cayman, Monaco … any of these jurisdictions has more sophisticated telecommunications systems than we do,’ he said.

A new low-cost airline will start flying from Gibraltar to the UK next year. Fly Gibraltar, which will have two leased Boeing 737 aircraft, will operate to Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin and Cork.

Although Gibraltar is much smaller than either Jersey or Guernsey, the airline aims also to target travellers wanting to visit an area within a 50-mile radius of the Rock, which includes a large part of the Costa del Sol.

The main details of Jersey’s new Income Support Law have been published. It is designed to help lower income families who will be particularly badly affected by the introduction of the goods and services tax. However, it goes much further and reforms the whole benefits system.

Parish welfare, childcare allowances, rent rebates and family care allowances will all be combined into one payment.