Bell On Mr Says We Will Saved £30Million With Wage Freeze

[Lxxx]

I can't see another boom here to be honest. The whole global economy looks to be rounding on low tax jurisdictions/tax havens/whatever you call them. We may get a few minor successes with maybe another niche industry or so springing up as business becomes 'virtual' and mobile, but something as huge as the financial sector starting up again and the tax advantages it had may be gone forever.

[Moghrey Mie]

 

 

Back on topic,sort of.

 

In a way you have to feel sorry for Bell being handed this financial crock of shit which he unfortunately inherited from the previous administration's Treasury Minister and his profligate tendencies.

I do feel some sympathy for Mr Bell. It must be very difficult to change the culture of a public sector that has grown fat on the years of plenty. He really needs a realist from within the hierarchy on side who will turn on colleagues and facilitate the necessary. You don't see it happening though. And without that co-operation, what on earth can he do?

He could always go back to being Treasury Minister,I suppose.

Did he ever leave it? He seems to be obsessed with money rather than the quality of life for people living here.

[CBman]

It's all well and good having a pop at the CS and other public sector workers they're an easy target, but what about cutting back on capital spending surely the likes of some of these bigger construction companies need to be cutting their cloth too instead of relying totally on lucrative government contracts to keep going. A few of them have grown very fat on government money, new schools, road works, care homes thank you very much.

Some of them have total reliance on government money which makes them just as much of a target as public sector workers for cut backs and savings to be made from.

[woolley]

It's all well and good having a pop at the CS and other public sector workers they're an easy target, but what about cutting back on capital spending surely the likes of some of these bigger construction companies need to be cutting their cloth too instead of relying totally on lucrative government contracts to keep going. A few of them have grown very fat on government money, new schools, road works, care homes thank you very much.

Some of them have total reliance on government money which makes them just as much of a target as public sector workers for cut backs and savings to be made from.

But stop it and more civil servants are for the chop there too aren't they?

[Albert Tatlock]

 

It's all well and good having a pop at the CS and other public sector workers they're an easy target, but what about cutting back on capital spending surely the likes of some of these bigger construction companies need to be cutting their cloth too instead of relying totally on lucrative government contracts to keep going. A few of them have grown very fat on government money, new schools, road works, care homes thank you very much.

Some of them have total reliance on government money which makes them just as much of a target as public sector workers for cut backs and savings to be made from.

But stop it and more civil servants are for the chop there too aren't they?

All spending has to be addressed and prioritised. That's why IMO a zero based budgeting approach is a sound fiscal approach.

 

The island is hemorrhaging money...it's government, civil and public servants alone cost in wages and salaries over twice the annual income tax take, and that doesn't include pensions. We are spending hundreds of £millions a year on a broken business model, with little invested toward our future and future economy. In terms of capital expenditure and infrastructure spending the island is inefficient, uneconomic and ineffective, and has been so for years, wasting now well into the £2 billion area over the past 10 years when much of what it has spent on should have been properly thought out and outsourced. Tens of £millions are servicing loans.

 

We have:

a) one quarter of our entire workforce in the civil and public sectors

b) one quarter facing outward to the world trying to bring money in

c) one quarter trying to find work or who are under-employed

d) one quarter providing services to the other three quarters

 

The spend on a) is going up, the take from b) is going down, an increasing amount of people are flowing from b) into c) and d) are struggling as there is less and less money in the economy as it is being sucked into a) and a) is helping to maintain bloated house prices where a great deal of the cash in the economy goes. Just think what percentage of average earnings is going into banks, building societies and the accounts of wealthy absent landlords, artificially bloating house prices, whilst meanwhile the construction industry is dying, expertise is diminishing, and we need at least 2000 new homes building.

 

Moreover, a) has lost a third of it's income over the last 4 years, b) is struggling to replace it and it's people are generally on pay freezes or minimal increases and c) many of which are less able to pay, are being unfairly penalised by stealth taxes and increased rents to fund a). d) reliant on island income, is finding less money available and is struggling too. The majority of b) do not pay corporation taxes, only tax through their employees tax and NI, and VAT. b) is declining, and IMO we are being lied to regarding the true employment picture, as I think the economically active figure is being manipulated to suit the statistics.

 

Bell's Vision 2020 is really nothing more than a cry for help. He is strangling the islands economy by refusing to seriously address government spending and headcounts and free up money for future investment. He is strangling the economy by signing us up to all kinds of things which we should have waited until the majority of other offshores were ready to sign, instead our sectors are the first to lose out. He is strangling the economy by burdening the taxpayer with loans.

 

Then he turns up with one quarter of the islands workforce and a presentation, effectively holding out a begging bowl to those relatively, and declining, few able to bring money into the island.

 

The man is lost. He is a self-deluded fool believing in nothing but his own press. Bell's record stinks...he goes on about growth over 30 years, but that was the finance sector and VAT take, not what he has done. He, like a proverbial vampire, has done nothing but suck the life out of our ecomony by wasting the income from it all. And now he simply wants to maintain this unworkable socialist experiment that he is a major architect of. Lately, he has tied £millions up in Sefton and Pinewood.

 

We are not so much interested in what the island has done in the last 30 years, it is the next 30 years that are important.

 

I hope there will be a petition when he retires that ensure he does not get a knighthood or any reward for the mess he has helped create and continues to maintain, nor an OBE for 'services to the hotel and film industry'.

 

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[NoTail]

Albert

 

I pretty well agree with your analysis.

 

You do not actually give a recipe for how you should change things, or are you simply advocating sacking the civil service and all ps workers "en masse" and starting again?

[Lxxx]

Albert

 

I pretty well agree with your analysis.

 

You do not actually give a recipe for how you should change things, or are you simply advocating sacking the civil service and all ps workers "en masse" and starting again?

That is what zero-base budgeting would probably advocate yes. At the moment we are tinkering around the edges with a business model that is bankrupt and unworkable and is slowly dragging the island under. What is their not to panic about?

[Albert Tatlock]

Albert

 

I pretty well agree with your analysis.

 

You do not actually give a recipe for how you should change things, or are you simply advocating sacking the civil service and all ps workers "en masse" and starting again?

No not at all.

 

My approach would have already been 4 years old and now entering it's 5th year, a more gradual and effective dose of reality over time, retraining, funding new businesses and new business infrastructure, a phased gradual reduction of headcount and scope. It would have been based on a mix of the scope of government report and zero based budgeting.

 

However, come 2015, those elected will be facing an entirely different set of circumstances now, as relatively little has been done to address the overspending issues in the past six years, and it has already been six years since the world near financial meltdown.

 

That said, I would have a concrete five year plan put in place immediately, though initially in the first year the over-management would go addressing the '1 in 4 are manager grade' or above situation, as well as immediately outsourcing road and infrastructure maintenance, where many of those currently employed by the state would immediately move to private employment. Had this been started 5 years ago, some of these managers could have been retrained for the private sector, even grants made available to encourage them to start the businesses needed a) to improve the economy and b) absorb the inevitable loss of staff from the public sector.

 

Moreover, I would have told the USA and OECD to 'stick it' until other offshores signed up, as well as their very own dodgy Delaware.

[GD4ELI]

Moreover, I would have told the USA and OECD to 'stick it' until other offshores signed up, as well as their very own dodgy Delaware.

 

1) Telling the US & OECD to 'stick it' would achieve nothing other than blacklisting IOM companies.

2) Delaware may not be quite what you think it is.

 

If your recipe for the IOM is based on tax avoidance then you are as bad as the current crop of politicians. In stead of the continual tirade of smug complaints and criticism just ask yourself what you have done for the country you live in.

[Albert Tatlock]

 

Moreover, I would have told the USA and OECD to 'stick it' until other offshores signed up, as well as their very own dodgy Delaware.

 

1) Telling the US & OECD to 'stick it' would achieve nothing other than blacklisting IOM companies.

2) Delaware may not be quite what you think it is.

 

If your recipe for the IOM is based on tax avoidance then you are as bad as the current crop of politicians. In stead of the continual tirade of smug complaints and criticism just ask yourself what you have done for the country you live in.

'Stick it' is a relative term. Let's just say I would have prolonged the negotiations.

[Ron Burgandy]

We're saving £50m now. £60m next year

 

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/cap-on-manx-government-s-wage-bill-saves-50m-1-6399257

 

We believe you Allan

[GD4ELI]

 

 

Moreover, I would have told the USA and OECD to 'stick it' until other offshores signed up, as well as their very own dodgy Delaware.

 

1) Telling the US & OECD to 'stick it' would achieve nothing other than blacklisting IOM companies.

2) Delaware may not be quite what you think it is.

 

If your recipe for the IOM is based on tax avoidance then you are as bad as the current crop of politicians. In stead of the continual tirade of smug complaints and criticism just ask yourself what you have done for the country you live in.

'Stick it' is a relative term. Let's just say I would have prolonged the negotiations.

 

MR Mandate this morning, story about UK property ownership via IOM companies.

 

This is exactly what the IOM does *not* need, may as well renovate the Peggy and get back to rum smuggling or whatever it was.

 

I'm sick of opportunist avoidance / evasion schemes which ultimately harm those at the bottom of the pile.

[Albert Tatlock]

 

 

 

Moreover, I would have told the USA and OECD to 'stick it' until other offshores signed up, as well as their very own dodgy Delaware.

 

1) Telling the US & OECD to 'stick it' would achieve nothing other than blacklisting IOM companies.

2) Delaware may not be quite what you think it is.

 

If your recipe for the IOM is based on tax avoidance then you are as bad as the current crop of politicians. In stead of the continual tirade of smug complaints and criticism just ask yourself what you have done for the country you live in.

'Stick it' is a relative term. Let's just say I would have prolonged the negotiations.

 

MR Mandate this morning, story about UK property ownership via IOM companies.

 

This is exactly what the IOM does *not* need, may as well renovate the Peggy and get back to rum smuggling or whatever it was.

 

I'm sick of opportunist avoidance / evasion schemes which ultimately harm those at the bottom of the pile.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

Tax avoidance is not tax evasion.

 

Property ownership...this approach is done all over the world. Don't confuse populist opinion with the law, if the UK wants to change its rules it can do so, but meanwhile most such acts remain loopholes, but legal loopholes.

[Amadeus]

 

 

This training and qualification has been available within Government for a number of years, although it used to be a UK company that delivered the training. Hopefully, a local company can provide the training and at least the income stays on the Island.

 

I don't think anybody would not want Government officials to receive appropriate training, but they then need to be made accountable and deliver results, which prove that the training has been beneficial and that they are earning their wage. This seems to be the bit that is missing in many cases.

A better alternative is hire people with the relevant experience and quals in the first instance.

Agreed wholeheartedly, but the work permit/house prices/cost of living/travel effectively have that stymied from the outset.

 

Mrs tbt reports that junior doctors coming to further their training at nobles don't have the iom as their first choice...and it may surprise some just how far down their preferential list the iom originally featured.

 

Tbt.

 

Yup, that has been a big down-point for years now and the government has completely failed to do anything about it. Many competing jurisdictions offer more in terms of retail, restaurants, nightlife, more realistically priced housing, and cheaper (and more reliable) travel options. There are not many reasons why someone should relocate to the island if the likes of Malta, Gibraltar, channel islands, etc, are alternative options. Unless you're a pensioner or nature living family, the IOM is not an attractive place to move for a working professional.

 

[GD4ELI]

Yup, that has been a big down-point for years now and the government has completely failed to do anything about it. Many competing jurisdictions offer more in terms of retail, restaurants, nightlife, more realistically priced housing, and cheaper (and more reliable) travel options. There are not many reasons why someone should relocate to the island if the likes of Malta, Gibraltar, channel islands, etc, are alternative options. Unless you're a pensioner or nature living family, the IOM is not an attractive place to move for a working professional.

 

 

Something AB has spoken about a lot - The Managing Director's wife. Even myself, a bachelor in his late 50's still appreciates that which I have experienced in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and elsewhere. Hell, even the UK's offerings on my last few visits have been way beyond that found on the Island.

 

Problem is - the local MHK's etc. just don't understand.

 

Tough one...