I'm with you here bar some points of division.
Opening up the purchasing powers of J's is as useful as arranging a Pinjada full of condoms at a lesbian convention. The anticipation at the point of moment would be as depressing as the result, probably causing a class prescription demand of trydixagane at our woeful General.
The real problem Terry has, as I see it is more relative to the European Convention on Human rights. Such is the cluster of curate's eggs.
Curate's Egg 1:-
The majority of the rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights are not absolute.
Most rights are qualified, which means that interference with a right is permitted where that is in accordance with the law, such as our Housing Law, 1949.
The requirements of which are that it requires every person wishing to purchase or lease land and property to have the prior consent of the Housing Minister, and stringently defines the ability to qualify for such a consent; either by virtue of a period of residence, or due to hardship, essential employment, or wealth.
Without this consent, a person wishing to live in Jersey is restricted to lodging accommodation. This law is tailored to a certain specified aim, and/or necessary to protect the rights and freedoms of others.
Yet the two are not synchronic. For example, it is sometimes necessary to balance the right of the media to freedom of expression with the right of individuals to respect for their private life.
Many areas of Government policy involve making these difficult decisions on a daily basis. It is also possible for a States Minister to make reservations to some rights or to derogate from some articles of the convention in times of emergency. However, the UK currently has no derogations to the convention. Nor does Jersey, but we do have an acknowledged "nod" to the Bill in the event of being pulled over by some zealous legalite who spots the flaw. i.e. while we are showing willing in putting our house in order, no one will bother us, the problem is how far do we go and how much do we hang on to.
Curate's egg #2:-
To drop the quallies altogether creates synergy with European convention and allows a freer market. If House prices Rocket, it will not be because of buyers flooding the market to pay Chris Swinson's 16% GST plus shipping plus inflated margins on products. The knock-on effect will generate much higher wage/salary requirements and the economy would in the short term have been given the "clotbusting" injection it needs. Where does this lead? The answer always lies in the longer term with rampant inflation. Our system is certainly not geared to cope with this, especially with our monetarists fiscally paralysed and searching braille cards for answers. Unfortunately this is no different to devaluation on a grand scale. Notwithstanding this, there are other tow-rope effects which this will precipitate, Enoch Powell's water tower speech of 1961 springs closely to mind. (
http://studymore.org.uk/xpowell.htm).
Curate's egg #3:-
Outside the Housing sector, SOJ has prided itself with the acquisition through multiple means, of all different types of properties, over many years. A lot of these properties historically have been bartered between departments for grand schemes, some of which as we know have been the subject of endless debate in the House. As with a collector, paralysed by financial downturn, the SOJ continue to rampantly add and improve bits of the estate, employing local who subcontract to outsiders. There is no social mores in the structure of how this happens, it just does. Once again, the relevance of this is only that it is major part of the generic infrastructure of our society. So much that it bounces back to housing. Who will employ all these people? who will they employ? what demands will they put on the seams of our economy etc.
With regard to the well spotted Inheritance Tax problem, there are many people whom have taken their business away from Jersey, to Gib, Switzerland and other jurisdictions and have skated round the edge of the bowl to a solution. It takes a lot to move your entire family away from their friends and associates as well as your own, to start up again in a place where you are not known. Believe me when I tell you because this is what my parents did and it is not for the faint hearted.
As my mum used to say,"If things don't change, they'll stay the same", I think that in this case, she was wrong. They have to change, not for the want of anything but for Jersey to keep up with the rest of the world. Now that beggars belief doesn't it!!!
