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P2514

http://www.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=3953&p=0

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It is clear that the Crown appointees are under a different pension scheme than States employees. I am not familiar with the Crown employees conditions of employment, so it is difficult for me to comment further on their pension entitlement.

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I am one of those who joined the PSD under the pay and conditions at the time – albeit at completely the other end of the pay scale to the bailiff and law officers etc.

Can you not understand why I would be slightly irritated that those who can most afford to take a financial hit are potentially in line for a ‘compensation’ payment whilst those earning peanuts in comparison will end up paying more in the interim, working up to age 67 and receiving a lesser pension when they do finally retire?

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Wikipedia:-
“A Freudian slip is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of some unconscious (“dynamically repressed”) subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought.”

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Of course I can do no such thing, the pension issue is a complex and protracted negation between the States and it’s employees.
These people joined the civil service under the pay and conditions prevailing at the time, which included the current pension arrangements. We need to move to a position where the future pension provision is sustainable for all and it can only be done by agreement between both sides, you cannot blame the employees ,they didn’t invent the pension arrangements they joined the civil service as a career and I have to say that some of the comments that have been made about our employees are not worthy of public comment.

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‘The gap between rich and poor is widening and it is something the government have to address’

Going slightly off this topic, can you reassure me that the 100 or so high earning States employees will not receive their ‘compensation’ payments if the pension scheme is changed?

I bet you can’t.

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I agree with you ,the gap between the rich and the poor is widening and it is something we as a government have to address. I see couples and families every week who are both working long hours and still cannot make ends meet, they struggle with everything, utility bills, basic things like clothing their children properly and off island trips are simply out of the question for hundreds of families. My office at Housing dealers with hundreds of requests for help with cheaper housing and we do what we can.

My board is due to discuss shortly the idea of helping people with deposits to get on the Housing ladder, as it is the one thing that couples and families struggle most to raise. I would like much more cooperation from the banks and morgage providers to issue mortgages over a much longer period, it never made any sense to me that most people can only secure a 25 to 30 year morgage when they work for 50 years on average, can you imagine how much more affordable it would be spread over double the period?

We need to tackle the high cost of legal fees and do something about stamp duty in order to get the housing market moving again.

So we are not sitting on our hands at housing and we have a saying that says “any day without progress is a wasted day”

We are looking at different ideas all the time to see what we can do to help

I am not making any promises at this stage but it is something I am keen to persue.

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Sean was a very hardworking and valued member of housing for four years, i was very sorry to loose him. He better than anybody knows the huge dilemma that faces us in this department every year. The demand grows and as private rental becomes more expensive, more families find themselves pushed towards social housing provision.

Which is why the States must try and help financially those struggling in the private rental sector. It is the cheaper option in the end, I can assure you as we will never build our way out of the problem.

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It bothers me that we have the bizarre combo of small plots with slightly cheaper, ‘too many’ homes on them (as someone else stated here), alongside plots that once were occupied by one small home, now harbouring an enormous millionaire-esk steel/glass carbuncle of the most massive proportions which take up every very expensive square foot of it with barely room to swing a Porche.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems the rich and poor divide grows ever wider here, with the rich who can afford to live here, local or no (and who can blame ‘em, really?) becoming more and more removed from the ‘average Joe’ very predominantly local populace, who increasingly, ironically, cannot.

It certainly will be interesting to see what the shrinkage of the finance industry and the inevitable reduction in States income, which will need to be shored up somehow to ensure the status quo, is retained to maintain out ‘attractiveness’ to the wealthy, and what that does to our small island in years to come.

Off to plant up some spuds an’ toms just in case, Dave, and not envying your job one bit, I do appreciate it’s a virtually impossible one!

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It is also in marked contrast to the understandable complaints I’ve heard today from staff in two other departments about the real practical problems arising from the (mis)launch of the SAP scheme.

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Local builders appear to have got into the habit of buying up detached properties with a bit of garden and whipping up 2,3 or even 4 rabbit hutches in their place,all at 350K-400K plus

Good for land conservation I suppose but certainly not for comfortable living space for an expanding family

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