State of the NationGuernsey · Opinion
Budget 2027: the 30 amendments, who lodged them and what they cost
Thirty amendments are on the table for the States' Budget debate on 3 November. Here is who proposed each one, what it does and what it would add to or take from the 2027 position.
28 Oct 2026 · William Walter
Key findings
- Thirty amendments were lodged on 26 October to the States of Guernsey Budget for 2027, which the States debates on 3 November. 29 of the 40 members proposed or seconded at least one.
- On the proposers' own figures, every amendment that applies to Option A would add £21.6m to 2027 spending or cut revenue by that much. That turns a £4.2m surplus into a £17.4m deficit.
- Eight amendments from five committee presidents ask for £16.3m under Option A and £3.88m under Option B. Home Affairs alone asks for £3.94m under A.
- Four tax amendments (fuel duty, the £85,000 allowance threshold, mortgage relief and alcohol duty) would give up £2.6m of revenue under either option.
- Amendment 7 proposes a third option at £708.25m, £7.85m above A and £7.85m below B. Amendment 23 would delete Option B.
- Nine amendments cost nothing in 2027, including directions to review the open market tax cap, restore the child tax allowance and send Pillar 2 windfalls to the Core Investment Reserve.
Thirty amendments have been lodged to the 2027 Budget before the States meets on 3 November, and 29 of the 40 members have put their name to at least one. On the proposers' own figures, if every amendment that applies to an option passed, the £4.2m surplus in Option A would become a £17.4m deficit, and the £11.5m deficit in Option B would deepen to £20.6m.
That is a ceiling, not a forecast. Many of the amendments overlap or cancel each other, and the States will vote on them one at a time. But it shows how thin the margin is: Option A's surplus before investment returns would be gone after the first £4.2m of extra spending.
How to read the scorecard
Each card shows who proposed and seconded the amendment, what it does and what it costs against each option. A plus sign means the States ends up with less money (more spending or less tax). A minus sign means more. "n/a" means the amendment does not apply to that option, because it is worded to work only if Option A passes.
The costs come from the proposers' own Rule 4(1) statements in each amendment, as lodged on 26 October. Treasury has not published its own costings, and some proposers say their figure is an estimate. The totals above are Bridgehead arithmetic. They leave out Amendments 7 and 23, which replace or remove an option rather than add to it, and Amendment 19, which is a narrower version of Amendment 2.
Committees asking for more money
Eight amendments, lodged by the presidents of the five committees that would get the money: George Oswald (Health & Social Care), Marc Leadbeater (Home Affairs), Steve Williams (Housing), Tina Bury (Employment & Social Security) and Paul Montague (Education, Sport & Culture). They add £16.3m under Option A and £3.88m under Option B, because four of the eight apply only if Option A passes. Leadbeater's three Home Affairs amendments come to £3.94m under A and £2.28m under B.
Amendment 4
Health: restore demand funding under Option A
Proposed by George Oswald (President, Health & Social Care). Seconded by Sally Rochester.
Applies only if Option A passes. Adds £3.1m to Health & Social Care, matching Option B, and ringfences £3m in the Budget Reserve for off-island acute care, which was forecast £4.2m overspent in 2026. Without it, the proposers say, the Committee faces a shortfall of at least £6.1m and could raise prescription charges or remove subsidies.
Option A +£6.1mOption B n/a
£6.1m, Option A only. Read the amendment
Amendment 14
Home Affairs: frontline officers
Proposed by Marc Leadbeater (President, Home Affairs). Seconded by John Gollop (Vice-President, Home Affairs).
Funds 11 law enforcement officers (including nine police constables), five firefighters, five prison officers for court security and the emergency control centre. The Committee says the money maintains current services and does not expand them.
Option A +£1.95mOption B +£792k
£1.95m under Option A, £792,000 under Option B. Read the amendment
Amendment 15
Home Affairs: victims and offenders
Proposed by Marc Leadbeater (President, Home Affairs). Seconded by Munazza Malik.
Funds the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (£401,000), which leaves pilot funding and would otherwise be unfunded in 2027, plus domestic abuse services, offender treatment and family court advisers.
Option A +£998kOption B +£699k
£998,000 under Option A, £699,000 under Option B. Read the amendment
Amendment 16
Home Affairs: financial crime and population management
Proposed by Marc Leadbeater (President, Home Affairs). Seconded by Simon Vermeulen.
Funds four investigators at the Economic & Financial Crime Bureau, an officer at the Financial Intelligence Unit, cyber security and the stabilisation of the Population Management Service.
Option A +£988kOption B +£790k
£988,000 under Option A, £790,000 under Option B. Read the amendment
Amendment 20
Housing: Action for Children training flats
Proposed by Steve Williams (President, Housing). Seconded by Sasha Kazantseva-Miller (President, Economic Development).
Raises the grant to Action for Children, whose training flats for young people aged 16 to 25 (about 60% care leavers) lose their States agreement at the end of 2026. It supported 67 young people in 2025.
Option A +£57kOption B n/a
£57,000, Option A only. Read the amendment
Amendment 21
Housing: maintain States homes
Proposed by Steve Williams (President, Housing). Seconded by Sasha Kazantseva-Miller (President, Economic Development).
Restores the £795,000 the Committee for Housing asked for to maintain States Housing, after what it calls a decade of cuts to upkeep.
Option A +£795kOption B n/a
£795,000, Option A only. Read the amendment
Amendment 22
Benefits: uprate by inflation
Proposed by Tina Bury (President, Employment & Social Security). Seconded by Jayne Ozanne.
Funds Employment & Social Security to raise non-contributory benefits by RPIX (4.3%) and meet rising claims. If it fails under Option B, the Committee says it will cut the family allowance income limit from £125,000 to £98,000. Under Option A it would withdraw its benefit rates policy letter.
Option A +£3.8mOption B +£1.6m
£3.8m under Option A, £1.6m under Option B. Read the amendment
Amendment 25
Education: restore Option B funding
Proposed by Paul Montague (President, Education, Sport & Culture). Seconded by Andy Cameron.
Applies only if Option A passes. Lifts Education, Sport & Culture to its Option B figure for family support workers in primary schools, apprenticeship grants, pupil support for additional learning needs, the autism service and a full-time special needs coordinator at Le Murier School.
Option A +£1.6mOption B n/a
£1.6m, Option A only. Read the amendment
Other spending
Five amendments for spending outside a committee's core budget, one of which saves money. Net, they cost £2.67m under Option A and £2.63m under Option B.
Amendment 1
Cost-of-living payment from 2027
Proposed by Jayne Ozanne. Seconded by Aidan Matthews (Vice-President, Health & Social Care).
Brings forward the Essential Cost Relief Payment agreed in the tax reform package, to start by September 2027. It would pay £210 a year to a single adult and £353 to a couple in households with income under £32,400 that are not on Income Support. The proposers put eligibility at 2,500 to 3,000 households, mostly single pensioners.
Option A +£1mOption B +£1m
Up to £1m a year, including £140,000 to run it (proposers’ estimate, likely lower because not everyone eligible will claim). Read the amendment
Amendment 3
Hold overseas aid at its 2026 level
Proposed by Rob Curgenven. Seconded by Edward Hill (Alderney Representative).
Cuts the Overseas Aid & Development Commission back to the budget the States approved for 2026. The proposers say that is still above what the Commission expects to spend in 2026.
Option A −£595kOption B −£638k
Saves £595,000 under Option A, £638,000 under Option B. Read the amendment
Amendment 13
Free buses for a year
Proposed by Sally Rochester. Seconded by Ross Le Brun.
Gives Environment & Infrastructure £1.9m to run the bus service free, or for a nominal annual fee, for a one-year pilot. The proposers present it as a share of the higher-than-expected Pillar 2 revenue returned to islanders.
Option A +£1.9mOption B +£1.9m
£1.9m under either option. Read the amendment
Amendment 29
Alderney air services
Proposed by Alexander Snowdon (Alderney Representative). Seconded by Edward Hill (Alderney Representative).
Raises the subsidy target for the Alderney air service from £1.5m to £1.864m to pay for extra crew and standby aircraft after a year of cancellations. It stays below the original £2m target of 2021.
Option A +£364kOption B +£364k
£364,000 under either option. Read the amendment
Amendment 30
Charities: grants in place of tax relief
Proposed by Jennifer Strachan (President, Overseas Aid & Development Commission). Seconded by Marc Laine.
Keeps the cap on tax-free donations to charities at £10,000 instead of raising it to £50,000, and spends the £350,000 that rise was expected to cost on commissioning charities directly. It also asks for payroll giving and simpler donation claims.
Option A £0Option B £0
Broadly neutral: £350,000 of spending in place of an estimated £350,000 of lost tax. Read the amendment
Tax and duty
Six amendments on fuel, alcohol, allowances and mortgage relief. Counting the diesel freeze (19) only within the wider fuel freeze (2), they give up £2.6m of revenue in 2027 under either option.
Amendment 2
Freeze fuel duty
Proposed by Lee van Katwyk. Seconded by Rob Curgenven.
Keeps duty on petrol and diesel at 90.5p a litre instead of 94.4p, and marine fuel at 61.4p instead of 64.0p. The proposers argue the 25% fuel duty cut promised with motor tax is not due before 2028, so raising the rate now raises the base it would be cut from.
Option A +£500kOption B +£500k
£500,000 of lost fuel duty, plus a smaller sum on marine fuel the proposers call immaterial. Read the amendment
Amendment 5
Raise the allowance withdrawal threshold with inflation
Proposed by Gavin St Pier. Seconded by Haley Camp.
Lifts the income at which personal allowances start to be withdrawn from £85,000 to £88,650, in line with RPIX of 4.3%. The Budget freezes it, which the Budget Report says raises about £800,000.
Option A +£800kOption B +£800k
£800,000 less income tax. Read the amendment
Amendment 19
Freeze diesel duty
Proposed by Neil Inder (President, Development & Planning Authority). Seconded by Marc Leadbeater (President, Home Affairs).
Keeps duty on diesel at 90.5p a litre and HVO at 60.5p for 2027, to help road hauliers. A narrower version of Amendment 2, which also covers petrol and marine fuel.
Option A +£334kOption B +£334k
£334,000 of lost duty. Read the amendment
Amendment 24
Keep mortgage interest relief
Proposed by Aidan Matthews (Vice-President, Health & Social Care). Seconded by David Goy.
Keeps the cap on mortgage interest relief at £3,500 and stops the phase-out, which the Budget takes to £2,000 in 2027, £1,000 in 2028 and nil from 2029.
Option A +£1mOption B +£1m
£1m less income tax in 2027, £3m to £4m in total by 2029. Read the amendment
Amendment 26
Bigger limit for small distillers
Proposed by Sasha Kazantseva-Miller (President, Economic Development). Seconded by Marc Laine.
Raises the volume a small distiller can produce at the discounted duty rate from 20,000 to 30,000 litres of pure alcohol, matching Jersey’s proposed limit.
Option A £0Option B £0
None expected. Read the amendment
Amendment 28
Alcohol duty up by inflation only
Proposed by Sasha Kazantseva-Miller (President, Economic Development). Seconded by Marc Leadbeater (President, Home Affairs).
Drops the extra 2% on alcohol duty, so rates rise by RPIX only in 2027 and 2028 or until minimum unit pricing arrives. The proposers say Guernsey’s rise would be 6.3% against Jersey’s 2.8%.
Option A +£300kOption B +£300k
£300,000 of lost duty. Read the amendment
Changing the total
Two amendments change the choice itself. One adds a third option between A and B. The other removes B.
Amendment 7
Option C: a middle way
Proposed by Rhona Humphreys. Seconded by Tom Rylatt.
Replaces Options A and B with a total of £708.25m, £7.85m above Option A, and lets the Policy & Resources Committee decide where the extra goes. It keeps the £20m savings target but drops the 2029 deadline for it. The proposers say the deficit before investment returns would be £3.65m, against £11.5m under Option B.
Option A +£7.85mOption B −£7.85m
£7.85m more than Option A, £7.85m less than Option B. Read the amendment
Amendment 23
Delete Option B
Proposed by Simon Vermeulen. Seconded by Liam McKenna.
Strikes Option B off the paper so deputies can only vote for Option A and the 1% real-terms savings resolution agreed earlier this year.
Option A £0Option B −£15.7m
Rules out the £15.7m of extra spending in Option B. Read the amendment
Directions with no cost in 2027
Nine amendments with no cost in 2027. Several would move money or revenue later: the Pillar 2 windfall rule (6), the child tax allowance (17), the end of downsizing relief (10) and higher duty on expensive homes (12).
Amendment 6
Bank Pillar 2 windfalls in the Core Investment Reserve
Proposed by Gavin St Pier. Seconded by George Oswald (President, Health & Social Care).
Sends any Pillar 2 corporate tax above the current estimates (£79m for 2027) into the Core Investment Reserve, and half of all Pillar 2 receipts from 2029. The proposers put the Reserve at about £200m against a policy target of about £720m.
Option A £0Option B £0
Nothing against the 2027 estimates. From 2029 it would move half of Pillar 2 receipts out of day-to-day spending. Read the amendment
Amendment 8
Review the open market tax cap
Proposed by Gavin St Pier. Seconded by Sasha Kazantseva-Miller (President, Economic Development).
Directs a cost-benefit analysis of the Open Market Tax Cap, which the Budget raises from £60,000 to £65,000 in 2027 and £95,000 by 2030, with results in the 2028 Budget. The proposers say no detailed analysis has been done since the cap began in 2018.
Option A £0Option B £0
None in 2027. Read the amendment
Amendment 9
Borrowing and reserves in the medium-term plan
Proposed by Gavin St Pier. Seconded by Mark Helyar (President, States' Trading & Supervisory Board).
Asks the medium-term financial plan to look at borrowing, buying back the States’ 2046 bond (trading at about £66 per £100), investing pension and insurance reserves in local projects, and a rolling five-year economic plan.
Option A £0Option B £0
None in 2027. Read the amendment
Amendment 10
End downsizing relief after 2027
Proposed by Gavin St Pier. Seconded by Steve Williams (President, Housing).
Ends the document duty relief for people buying a smaller home, worth up to £13,750, at the end of 2027. The Budget Report admits there is no way to tell how many sales the relief actually caused.
Option A £0Option B £0
None in 2027. Ends a relief used in 4% to 5% of sales from 2028. Read the amendment
Amendment 11
Rules for the growth fund
Proposed by Haley Camp. Seconded by Andy Sloan (President, Scrutiny Management Committee).
Sets a definition of economic growth and five tests every bid to the new growth fund (£5m a year for three years) must pass, makes Economic Development the final decision-maker in place of the Policy & Resources Committee, and requires an annual report on results.
Option A £0Option B £0
None. Read the amendment
Amendment 12
Higher document duty on homes over £2.5m
Proposed by David Goy. Seconded by Tina Bury (President, Employment & Social Security).
Asks for document duty above £2.5m to rise by at least a percentage point, with a new 9% band above £10m, ready for the 2028 Budget.
Option A £0Option B £0
None in 2027. The proposers estimate £900,000 to £1m a year more from 2028. Read the amendment
Amendment 17
Bring back the child tax allowance
Proposed by Andy Sloan (President, Scrutiny Management Committee). Seconded by Munazza Malik.
Restores the States’ July decision (26 votes to five) to introduce a Child Responsibility Tax Allowance alongside tax reform. It was reversed on 1 October by paragraph 7 of Amendment 55, carried 21 to 16, which the proposers say was not debated.
Option A £0Option B £0
None in 2027. Lower income tax once tax reform starts; not costed. Read the amendment
Amendment 18
Test every Budget for competitiveness
Proposed by Andy Sloan (President, Scrutiny Management Committee). Seconded by Haley Camp.
Makes economic competitiveness a core consideration of fiscal policy and changes the Rules of Procedure so every Budget and tax or spending proposal states its likely effect on business costs, investment and jobs.
Option A £0Option B £0
None. Read the amendment
Amendment 27
Tiered small-producer discounts
Proposed by Sasha Kazantseva-Miller (President, Economic Development). Seconded by Rhona Humphreys.
Asks for a tiered system of small-producer duty discounts in the 2028 Budget, to remove the cliff edge when a business outgrows the limit.
Option A £0Option B £0
None in 2027. Read the amendment
Who is behind them
The busiest names, with the number of amendments each is named on, are Sasha Kazantseva-Miller (6), Gavin St Pier (5), Marc Leadbeater (5), Steve Williams (3). Gavin St Pier proposed five, and two of them (6 and 10) say they are supported by Forward Guernsey, as does Amendment 7 from Rhona Humphreys and Tom Rylatt. Marc Leadbeater proposed the three Home Affairs amendments and seconded two more. Sasha Kazantseva-Miller proposed the three alcohol and small-distiller amendments (26, 27 and 28) and seconded three others (8, 20 and 21).
No member of the Policy & Resources Committee, which wrote the Budget, appears as a proposer or seconder, going by the committee seat list we hold (23 July 2026). The two Alderney Representatives, Alexander Snowdon and Edward Hill, are named on two amendments: the air services subsidy (29), which Snowdon proposed and Hill seconded, and the overseas aid cut (3), which Hill seconded.
What decides it
Amendment 23 matters more than its size suggests. If it carries, Option B disappears and Option A is the only budget left. Four amendments are written to work only under Option A (4, 20, 21 and 25), and together they ask for £8.56m. Amendment 7 would override whichever option passes, replacing it with a single total of £708.25m.
Questions
- How many amendments have been lodged to the Guernsey 2027 Budget?
- Thirty, all lodged on 26 October 2026 against proposition P.2026/82. 29 of the 40 members of the States proposed or seconded at least one. The States debates the Budget at a special meeting on 3 November 2026. Source.
- Who lodged the most amendments to the 2027 Budget?
- Sasha Kazantseva-Miller is named on six (three proposed, three seconded). Gavin St Pier and Marc Leadbeater are each named on five. St Pier proposed all five of his. Leadbeater proposed three and seconded two.
- How much would the 2027 Budget amendments cost?
- On the proposers' own figures, every amendment that applies to Option A would add £21.6m to 2027 spending or reduce revenue by that amount. Under Option B the figure is £9.11m. These are Bridgehead sums, not Treasury estimates, and many amendments overlap.
- What is Amendment 7, Option C?
- Deputy Rhona Humphreys and Deputy Tom Rylatt propose a total of £708.25m for committee spending, £7.85m above Option A and £7.85m below Option B, with the Policy & Resources Committee deciding how to divide the extra. They say it would leave a deficit before investment returns of £3.65m.
Sources
- The States of Guernsey Annual Budget for 2027, P.2026/82, with its 30 amendments, States of Deliberation, parliament.gg, 26 October 2026
- States of Guernsey Budget 2027 (full report), Policy & Resources Committee, States of Guernsey, 6 October 2026
- Guernsey Deputy Scorecard: Budget 2027, Bridgehead Communications, October 2026