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The future of funding for Les Ozouets campus is once again back on the agenda, as the States look to resume debate on the 2024 budget.
Deputies were set to begin with an amendment over whether to re-fund the building of a post-16 education campus at Les Ozouets, during a meeting that has already got a stacked agenda with deferred and new government business.
A major decision on whether to borrow up to £200m to fund the Transforming Education Project, and whether to extract additional annual revenue out of companies to service some of that debt across several decades, will need to be concluded before a vote of no confidence in the Policy & Resources Committee is considered.
However, an amendment lodged earlier this week might see the focus of the debate shift.
Deputies Charles Parkinson and Gavin St Pier want the States to bench any funding plans and instead direct Policy and Resources to develop a report on funding options instead.
They said:
“The proposer and seconder consider that the funding of the Transforming Education Programme is too important, as an issue, to be dealt with by amendments to the Annual Budget.
“The decision of the States needs to be based on a thorough appraisal of the funding options, which will provide the Members of the Assembly with the evidence on which to base their decision(s).
“However, the purpose of the amendment is not to revisit the decisions of the States to adopt a model of comprehensive secondary education comprising three 11-16 schools and a Sixth Form Centre.
“A short delay in the making of the funding decision(s) would allow the Policy & Resources Committee to gather further information on the anticipated revenues of the States from 2025 onwards, and to develop funding proposals which would avoid the damage to Guernsey’s credit rating that could result from a chaotic approach to debt funding.”
The States also need to approve the 2024 Budget, debate the Government Work Plan which sets out the government policy priorities for the rest of the political term, as well as several other items.
Express will be live blogging tomorrow’s [22 November] debate online.
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