Deputy Soulsby calls for more collaboration across P&R to avoid "draconian cuts"

Deputy Heidi Soulsby has written an open letter blaming the Policy and Resources Committee for the significant cuts needed to public services.

She highlighted the importance of strong leadership and working together across the committee to avoid “draconian cuts” that P&R recently claimed would be necessary.

She adds, “Deputies need to work with those across the Assembly, not just those in their tribe. We, as an island, cannot afford such an attitude. The longer we delay, the longer we have a social security system overdue for reform, the more inequality will grow and the greater the deficit will be.”

Deputy Soulsby highlighted the “baffling speed” at which the review of capital spending would take place.

In the letter she also criticised the committee’s decision to “prioritise rebuilding a sixth form half a mile down the road from the existing one.”

Adding that the decision to prioritise this over the modernisation of hospitals, where workers had already started building, had “not been thought through”.

Announcing the cuts last month the President of P&R, Deputy Peter Ferbrache, said "Difficult decisions are needed as it is simply not possible to deliver all projects in the timescales originally planned."

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