Friday, July 1, 2022 - 09:28

Clinton lashes out at Government’s ‘Pickpocket Budget’

In his budget address, Roy Clinton criticised what he called ‘a Pickpocket Budget’.
“A 2% increase in PAYE coupled with inflation raging at 8%, and likely to increase, means that the average worker and their family will see a fall in real wages of at least 10% this year.”

He highlighted an overspend of £40,000,000 according to the estimated financial outturn for 2022, and in his speech he had strong words on the matters of transparency, borrowing and “waste”.
RENTAL OF OFFICES
Mr. Clinton also addressed the rental of private office space by the Government.
“We also find Mr Speaker that of the nine Government Ministers the majority namely six are in private rented offices as disclosed in answer to my question 269/2022,” he said.
“Mr Speaker the cost of rental of office space by the Treasury department has rocketed from £ 2 million in 2011/12 to £10.5 million in 2021/22. I would welcome an analysis and justification of this number by the Chief Minister,” he later added.