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Government Budget Debate Running Order 2025-2028

States Assembly

26 November 2024

The States Assembly are meeting to debate the Council of Ministers’ draft Government Budget for 2025-2028. These are the proposals for what they intend to spend public money on over the next year.

Amendments have been lodged by Scrutiny panels and individual States members.  Those Amendments will be read in the order that they are addressed within the proposition. 

After taking into account those amendments which have been withdrawn or accepted by the Council of Ministers, this is the current running order for the debate:
 

Amendment TWENTY-FIVE (stamp duty exemption) 

Deputy Philip Ozouf has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget which will allow for a Stamp Duty holiday in 2025 allowing properties up to a value of £700,000 to pay no Stamp Duty, with Stamp Duty levied at 2.5% on properties valued between £700,000 and £1,000,000 and a taper for properties valued between £1,000,000 and £1,200,000. Properties over £1,200,000 will remain subject to Stamp Duty at the full rate. This Stamp duty holiday will exclude buy-to let properties and will reduce the income from Stamp Duty by £10.5million. This is as amended. 

Read more: bit.ly/4eGVC28  
 

Amendment TWENTY-EIGHT (Removal of stamp duty surcharge on second homes.) 

Deputy Philip Ozouf has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget that Stamp Duty in 2025 should be reduced by £2,000,000 to reflect the removal of the current higher rate surcharge on the sale of second homes for one year in order to promote a positive increase in the sale of residential properties  

Read more: bit.ly/3OhCxc7  

Amendment to Amendment Twenty-eight  

The Council of Ministers has lodged an amendment to the twenty-eighth amendment which would see the reduction on the current higher rate surcharge being reduced to 2% and the income therefore reduced to £665,00 rather than £2m. Read more: bit.ly/3AREb1c   
 

Amendment TWENTY-FOUR (Agricultural loan restriction) 

Deputy Philip Ozouf has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget which will restrict the provision of Agricultural Loans from being used for the purposes relating to the cultivation of cannabis. 

Read more:  bit.ly/3OkRxpC  

 

Amendment to Amendment Twenty-four

Deputy Hilary Jeune has lodged an amendment to Deputy Philip Ozouf’s amendment, which would clarify that Agricultural Loans are not used for the cultivation of cannabis that will be used in cannabis-based products for medicinal use. 

Read more: bit.ly/3APgmqM 

 

Second Amendment to  Amendment Twenty-four

The Council of Ministers has lodged an amendment to Deputy Philip Ozouf’s amendment, which would reduce the amount available through Agricultural Loans for the cultivation of cannabis; ensuring the loans represent no more than 10% of the total funding allocated to the Fund, and that no individual loan is greater than £250,000. 

Read more: bit.ly/3V3Hidj  
 

Amendment TWENTY (Jersey Business and Digital Jersey Savings) 

The Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget that seeks to lessen the proposed cut to Jersey Business and Digital Jersey’s funding by £286,000 each year, by transferring from the Central Reserve.  

Read more: bit.ly/3Zf4WWx  

 

Amendment ONE (Increase grants to States Funds) 

Sir Philip Bailhache has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget to increase the Grant to the Social Security Fund which secures pensions, by £10million, which is back to its full formula value; and to decrease the grant to the Consolidated Fund by £10million.  Read more:  bit.ly/3ZfGK6p  

 

Amendment SEVENTEEN (Le Squez) 

Deputy Karen Wilson has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget which seeks to increase the Head of Expenditure to Le Squez by £2,500,000 and to decrease the Head of Expenditure for ‘Infrastructure Rolling Vote and Public Realm’ by the same amount. 

Read more: bit.ly/492ZVUA  
 

Amendment NINETEEN (Fort Regent development) 

The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Panel has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget to transparently identify funding provided by Government to its chosen development partner for the programme of works on Fort Regent; and to identify a sustainable funding model. 

Read more: bit.ly/41eKoiD  

 

Amendment TWENTY-TWO (Digital Services platform) 

Deputy Alex Curtis has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget that seeks to reduce funding for the Digital Care Strategy by £400,000; and increase the funding for the Digital Services Platform.  

Read more: bit.ly/4hQJoH4  
 

Amendment SIX (New Healthcare Facilities Programme expenditure) 

The Hospital Review Panel has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget asking Ministers to provide a breakdown of expenditure for the new Healthcare Facilities, showing separate budgets for the Overdale Acute Facility, Kensington Place Ambulatory Facility, and St Saviour’s Health Village.  

Read more: bit.ly/40TX4v4  

 

Amendment SIXTEEN (New office) 

Deputy Philip Ozouf has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget which opposes the proposed acquisition of the new Government Headquarters using the Social Security (Reserve) Fund; and to delay the acquisition. 

Read more: bit.ly/3CETsmA  

 

Amendment TWELVE (Performance Framework) 

Deputy Hilary Jeune has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget that would see sustainable wellbeing embedded within all business-as-usual activities in conjunction with Ministerial plans and portfolios. Including how funding to third parties actively contributes to sustainable wellbeing, is aligned with the Future Jersey vision and is monitored in line with the Jersey Performance Framework. 

Read more: bit.ly/3UWnyIA 
 

Amendment EIGHT (Indexation of alcohol duty) 

Deputy Helen Miles has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget to ask the Government to commit to the reinstatement of the indexation of alcohol duty in line with RPI from 2026. Alcohol duty has been frozen for the past five years due to the economic climate.  

Read more: bit.ly/3UWPonJ  

 

Amendment TWENTY-NINE Small distillers relief 

The Council of Ministers has lodged an amendment to its own draft Budget, to reduce the production ceiling for distillers eligible for duty relief, from 40,000 litres a year to 20,000 litres, in order to focus on genuinely small producers. 

Read more: bit.ly/4hZM7Oq 
 

Amendment NINE (Pillar 2 allocations) 

Deputy Hilary Jeune has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget that the £15m annual revenue projected to be received as a result of the new Pillar Two Corporate tax changes,  should be focused on funding the delivery of a Sustainable Finance Action Plan and supporting the transition to a net-zero economy.  

Read more: bit.ly/3AMl3BJ  
 

Amendment to Amendment nine 

The Council of Ministers have lodged an amendment to amendment 9 which takes out the words ‘funding for’ from Deputy Jeune’s amendment, leaving it to read ‘focused on’ but not ‘funding the'  Sustainable Action Plan and supporting the transition to a net-zero economy. 

Read more: bit.ly/3AT3znd  
 

Amendment THREE (Statistics Jersey funding) 

The Corporate Services Panel has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget, that Statistics Jersey Funding should be increased by £157,000 through the reallocation of other Cabinet Office expenditure.  

Read more: bit.ly/4fxd7TY 

Amendment to Amendment three  

The Council of Ministers has lodged an amendment to the Corporate Services Panel amendment, which would reduce the increase in funding to Statistics Jersey to £78,000. 

Read more: bit.ly/4i1uBcE  

 

Amendment TWENTY-ONE (Transform Project) 

Deputy Alex Curtis has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget that reduces the project total for the Customer and Local Services programme TRANSFORM by £10million over the next three years to ensure value for money and increase the Social Security Fund.  

Read more: bit.ly/3V2sBqP  
 

Amendment TWO (West of Island Planning Framework) 

Deputy Helen Miles has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget to allocate £100,000 from within the Public Realm budget to prioritise work on the West of Island Planning Framework, as referenced in the Bridging Island Plan. 

Read more: bit.ly/3AO14CA  

 

Amendment FOURTEEN (Jersey Cheshire Homes) 

Deputy Inna Gardiner has lodged an amendment to the Government Budget to provide an additional £200,000 of funding from the Health and Community Services budget to Jersey Cheshire Homes to provide for one year of bridging funding to ensure provision of services in 2025 for adults with disabilities.  

Read more: bit.ly/41fzQjh  


The States Assembly will then vote on the Government Budget as a whole, and as amended by those above which have been passed.