GILLSON; Peter Leonard

Manifesto to follow..

I am 50, born in Guernsey, married to Tina with two children, Annabel and Joseph.

I worked 10 years in the Civil Service, 7 years with Barings. During 1998 I co-founded Ipes, which was sold in 2008 employing nearly 130 staff.

Since 2008 I have had the pleasure of serving as one of your Deputies, for the 4 years before that I was your Parish Constable.

I believe that my successful mix of experience in the Parish, the States and in business gives me a solid basis to continue to be an effective Deputy for both the Parish and the Island as a whole.

I was appointed to the Commerce & Employment Department where amongst other things, we successfully:

• introduced minimum wage legislation,
  
• introduced an effective air route licensing process to protect our vital air links,
  
• finalised the banking Depositor Compensation Scheme,
  
• embarked on developing the skills strategy,
  
• Modernised the Company Registry so the services it offers leads the world.
  
• Created the Guernsey Renewable Energy Commission.
  
• Introduced animal protection legislation
  

A year ago I was elected Deputy Minister of the Health and Social Services Department a role I enjoy. As well as many sub-groups I am member of the Funding of Long-term Care Working Party.

I am also a member of the Environmental Policy Group and Strategic Land Planning Group, and Waste Disposal Authority.

I placed a successful amendment to the Social Policy Plan so there is now an expectation for people to take responsibility for the actions of themselves and their families. We need to have a benefit system which gives a “hand up, not a hand out”, encouraging people back into work.

A strong economy is essential to fund the delivery of services and social policies. The new Government must focus on enhancing the business environment so businesses, large and small can thrive and providing varied employment opportunities.

Zero/10 resulted in a shift in the tax burden and the replacement tax regime needs careful design to spread the tax load, while maintaining our competitive environment. The efficiency measures we have started must continue because we cannot afford the good services we enjoy while we have a budget deficit. We need to balance the books, but by continuing the efficiency measures we have started and not new taxes. During my time with Commerce & Employment it’s expenditure increased by only 0.64% – the lowest of all the departments and HSSD’s results for 2011 are £1.8m under budget.

I remain opposed to the introduction of a General Sales Tax

The next four years are going to be some of the hardest the States has had to face, the need for all Departments to continue to reduce costs will mean that some hard, and possibly unpopular, decisions will have to be made and the new Government cannot shy away from them.

My thanks to Ken Falla and Stuart Moseley for their support and nomination.

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peter.gillson@hotmail.com

www.petergillson.org