Insights from our President, Adam Budworth, December 2024
As we move into 2025, I reflect on 2024 and am reminded that, after welcoming Kemi Badenoch as the new leader of the Conservative party, and subsequently witnessing Trump emerge victorious in the US elections I have pretty much seen a new leader during every month of my tenure as President since August 2022. Such inconsistency can surely only result in political and economic uncertainty.
Unfortunately, local Government did not display any sense of urgency when negotiating with potential new ferry operators with some businesses calling the delay ‘farcical’.
Questions have rightly been asked as to the seemingly chaotic and much delayed process, and following the short process of a new tender engagement you might well be reading this knowing who the successful ferry company is, not a luxury I have at the time of writing, in this ever-changing drama.
From a Chamber standpoint, we have engaged directly with our government and made the opinions of our members known, mostly without the need to create news headlines. Being heard, and also understanding the challenges that our government are facing in securing fifteen years of stability, should not be underestimated, exasperated by Guernsey going early on clear what was not an agreed decision. By the time you read this, as opposed to the time of writing, the Jersey ferry service may well be decided, although we can never quite be sure can we?
Recently, government was again the focus of criticism, in several areas. Frustrations focus on government complacency with no meaningful intervention since we saw the downfall of Camerons in early 2023. We have still seen no firm details of support to businesses and details in relation to the living wage. It would appear also that local businesses, local investors and local industry will certainly not benefit as result of a French supermarket, hospital tendering and a 28% growth in the Government of Jersey over the past 5 years.
Chamber have been reviewing the results of a recent survey on the Government’s procurement process. Key points include high levels of dissatisfaction due to complexity, lack of transparency and poor communication with a need for improvement in relation to local business. Ongoing challenges were identified as high costs, inadequate resources and time-consuming processes. The view is that the current process is inflexible with a requirement for simplification and better support. Among suggestions for improvement, participants request more transparency and fairness with regular audits and independent oversight, with the overall aim of creating a more transparent, efficient and supportive procurement process to benefit local businesses and foster collaboration. I would be keen to hear the views of todays’ speaker. Again, we are hearing positive words from Government, “Recruitment freeze”, “re-size cabinet office”, “more senior departures”, reduced funding and budget cuts” we need to see these actioned.
A word of warning, this is going to be a tricky balance.As an island we need to ensure we retain competitive advantage.
On a hugely positive note, the Island received wonderful exposure from the visit of the Springboks in late October. The South African Rugby Team who are the current World Cup champions. Although they had an exhausting schedule, they were hugely generous with their time, delighting hundreds of new and existing fans whilst demonstrating humility and fabulous humour.
We hope our members and fellow Islanders will have an enjoyable time over the seasonal break with those close to them and that we can look positively to increased stability as we move into 2025. Chamber will be working tirelessly for our membership to achieve that.
