Minister says infrastructure budget not enough

Jersey's new infrastructure minister has revealed his department does not have enough money to meet its targets.

Deputy Jonathan Renouf was appointed to the role last week and made the admission during the opening ceremony of the revamped St Aubin play area.

In December's budget, the government allocated £1bn, to be spent across four years, on buildings, infrastructure, IT and a new hospital.

Renouf said the "central challenge" he faced was a "a long backlog of infrastructure projects and maintenance that is not, at the moment, properly funded".

"We need to decide what it is that we want to do, and then decide how we're going to fund it," he told BBC Radio Jersey.

He said the target for the first part of his four-year term was to price up the projects that needed funding and then it would "be up for the States and members of the government to decide".

He added he had made his thoughts "clear" in his nomination speech in the States Assembly.

"I think infrastructure needs more money than it currently has," he said.

"Whether we do that by reprioritisation, by raising more money, staggering and perhaps not being as ambitious, I don't yet know.

"But I think it is unquestionable in my mind that we do not have enough money to do what we say we want to do."

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