‘We have got to get moving on infrastructure spending’

In 2021, the States agreed an ambitious programme of investment in infrastructure, which at the time had an estimated cost of nearly £600m.

But numerous high-profile projects have been delayed or cancelled since then and capital investment has fallen tens of millions of pounds short of what was intended.

Policy & Resources vice-president Heidi Soulsby claimed the problem started in previous States terms but admitted it had not yet been put right.

‘I think we have wasted a few years in this term,’ she said.

‘We haven’t got to the position of agreeing what we need to do, after decades in which we haven’t been investing in capital projects.

‘It’s long overdue. It should have been resolved a long time ago. There has been a lot of indecision, a lack of agreement.’

Deputy Soulsby, who returned as P&R vice-president in December after the previous senior committee was ousted in a vote of no confidence, was optimistic that capital spending would be higher this year than in the past.

‘We have got to get moving on that. That movement is happening now. I think it will be quite positive in the future.

‘We have got the next phase of hospital modernisation and the education estate, and also other areas where I have certainly seen approvals being given since being on P&R. The expenditure is starting to happen.’

The slow speed of capital spending left a balance of £362m. on the General Revenue Reserve at the end of 2023.

But the States accounts, released yesterday, also showed that the end of year balance on the Core Investment Reserve was hundreds of millions of pounds short of its target value.

The States’ policy is for the Core Investment Reserve to contain one year’s worth of general revenue income, but it ended the year £419m. down on that figure.

At the same time, there was a balance of £310m. outstanding in relation to loans made from the proceeds of the £330m. States’ bond issue. These loans have been made at rates of interest fixed in accordance with a formula to fund repayment.

‘The agreed policy is designed to ensure that the bond issue can be serviced fully – that is, the annual coupon payments made, the costs of issuance recovered and the capital sum repaid in full at the end of the term,’ said P&R.