BLOG: Gavin Hood

He steals from the rich and gives to the poor, its Deputy Gavin St Hood…Bear with me here guys; I’ve not just gone all Men in Tights on you, but this Budget for 2018 introduces a new character to the colourful picture of Guernsey’s political portrait.

I’ve often seen Deputy St Pier as one of our more right wing politicians, which means in Guernsey he’s probably more centre-right if he was juxtaposed onto the current British political compass.

But proposals released today show he’s gone, perhaps not full, Gavin St Corbyn but at least moved some way to accentuating his Robin Hood credentials.

He wants to see those on lower incomes get a higher personal tax allowance, paid for by higher earners losing more of theirs, in an effort to build a fairer tax system.

Now critics may say, it’s a cynical and empty move as fuel duty is going up by more than 5%, cigarettes by 7% and booze by 5% if you’re looking at spirits.

While there is also scope next year for the introduction of a new ‘environmental tax’ on the rubbish we throw away.

So arguably the extra cash in yours and my pockets will be emptied by a series of ‘stealth taxes’ or duties.

But, as far as gestures go in so far as saying ‘we’re trying to build a fairer society’, the headline that tax allowances are moving up by £500 to £10,500 is certainly something which will leave many people in Guernsey pleased with this budget.

That’s not me saying there are only things to be pleased about in this budget. There are certainly some nuggets in there which deserve scrutiny but they are largely not beholden to Policy and Resources, they’re more other committee’s dirty laundry.

Here’s a few which jumped out to me:

• Aurigny’s £3.8m losses for 2018 (£3.2m on Alderney route)

• Cost of Population Management Regime transition doubling from £500,000 to £1,000,000

• Cost of Public Service Reform transition doubling from £750,000 to £1,500,000

• No proposals to remove Document Duty, despite a report costing £100,000 from KPMG saying that’s exactly what they should do. (E&I + ESS share the blame here)

But this, as has come to be expected of Deputy St Pier’s budget is one which doesn’t grab headlines, but more balances some of the good with the bad.

For years the campaign for Gift Aid has been one which has attracted a lot of public scrutiny.

Well, while Peter Rose and his merry band may NOT have Gift Aid, they’ve got a ‘Social Investment Commission’ which will act as kind of a Gift Aid, meaning money is distributed where it’s most needed.

So there’s some good news there, but caveat that with the fact TRP for commercial premises is set to rise above inflation and you can see why this isn’t a budget that everyone will be running to the rooftops to say, THANK YOU Gavin Hood.