Dear Voter,

I am standing for Deputy of St Saviour number 3 as a Reform Jersey candidate.

About Me

I am Jersey born and raised. I was educated at Grainville School and Highlands College. For the last 14 years I have worked full time for a large private company. I started at the bottom and have worked up to management level, taking responsibility for 17 employees and creating new procedures to make working safer and more efficient

I particularly enjoy walking in our still-green island, whether with my rescue springer spaniel Dexter, or for charity, on the Island Walk or from St Malo to Dinan for Mind Jersey.

Why am I standing?

Over the past 4 years I have grown increasingly concerned about the way in which our Island is being run.Ministers have increased taxes on low and middle earners while cutting public services. As a direct result of these policies, economic growth has stalled, wages have stagnated, the number of households living in relative poverty has increased and families have found it more and more difficult to make ends meet.

I believe the time has come to elect a government that truly represents the interests of all islanders and not just a privileged few. That is why I stand as a Reform Jersey candidate, as part of a team that can deliver much needed change through carefully considered and costed policies.

Reform Jersey has already delivered an increase in the minimum wage and persuaded the States to adopt the living wage, both of which will improve the standard of living for many families on low incomes. But action on low wages can only be one part of the answer to increasing hardship. We need to bring down the level of social rents to sustainable levels. Andium rents are set at 90% those in the private sector, with no rent cap. I will promote a rent freeze pending a full review of how we can deliver sustainable housing provision, and action on the 3,000 empty properties we already have before we have to build on green land.

The failure of this government to control population growth has resulted in runaway infrastructure demand, for housing, schools and energy. Setting viable limits on migration growth is the first step to a “greener” economy. Our island was once sold as “the sunniest place in the British Isles, and yet we have so few solar panels and no encouragement from either the government or its partly owned energy company to move from low-carbon to truly renewable sources. We must invest in solar arrays both on the land (e.g.the reclamation site) and all new build and change of purpose permits to require solar panels where viable. I addition, as a responsible government, we should promote a replacement for energy saving schemes such as “Pathway 2050” and extend its remit to further decarbonise our energy market to electric vehicles.