James Cochrane

In the manifesto

“Break the housing costs that quietly compound (mortgage margins, land-banking, rents), part of taking on market power and concentration right across the economy.”

In the manifesto

“A housing fund with its money committed for several years up front, not topped up year to year, so support can't stop and start mid-purchase.”

In the manifesto

“More starter homes: one- and two-bed, built for first-time buyers, plus single-person homes that make downsizing attractive.”

In the manifesto

“A tradesperson-led self-build scheme, conditioned on taking on apprentices: building homes and rebuilding the trades in one move.”

In the manifesto

“Bring the empties back: publish the breakdown behind the 5,695 vacant homes, and back only right-sized homes until we know categorically what's consuming the stock.”

In the manifesto

“Braddan Woods: only 80 of 320 homes "affordable", one in four, when affordability is the whole problem. Right-size what we build, and track the "maybes" in public.”

In the manifesto

“Help-to-buy built for buying together. A typical home is 10× one young income but 5× two: steep, but reachable. So build the scheme around two people buying jointly, not one.”

In the manifesto

“Make the landlord register compulsory: the 2021 Act is on the books, but five years on the register is still only voluntary.”

In the manifesto

“Shielded politically, properly. The governance, delegation and contracting work the reviews identified needs completing, not resetting with every new minister.”

In the manifesto

“Care arranged before finance. No one should block a ward bed while their care funding is decided: arrange the care, discharge, settle the money after.”

In the manifesto

“Pensions, public-service and State alike, held to one open standard: the same scrutiny of what they cost, and the same protection of what people are owed. No more needless divisiveness.”

In the manifesto

“Funded, paid Care Certificates for school leavers and willing retirees: routes into care, rehabilitation, advocacy and mental-health roles.”

In the manifesto

“Prevention pays: screen earlier, bowel cancer from 50 not 60, catching cancers where nine in ten survive, not one in ten. A monitored prevention budget line, with cervical and bowel screening coverage published against international best practice.”

In the manifesto

“Long-term workforce planning for clinical roles, backed by state funding: grow our own clinicians and carers.”

In the manifesto

“Integrated women's health: endometriosis, menopause and the mental health alongside them, on published pathways, not waiting lists.”

In the manifesto

“Leadership clinicians trust, and pay benchmarked to recruit and keep the staff we're short of.”

In the manifesto

“A fairer deal for the Hospice. In March it made staff redundant and handed four services to Manx Care after six years of deficits. Government pays 24% of its income (Jersey pays 44%, the UK average is 36%) and this year's grant rose by less than costs.”

In the manifesto

“Published care pathways, in the open: see the route and take the steps you can yourself, not wait on Manx Care when you needn't. Employed GPs, with GP and hospital data joined up.”

In the manifesto

“A networked hospital: specialists visiting and by telemedicine, capacity and outcomes shared and benchmarked with Jersey and Guernsey, patients travelling only when they truly must.”

In the manifesto

“How we pay for later life: an honest, grown-up conversation about pensions, care and its costs; straight talk, not another consultation. England is considering a National Care Service, built on exactly our hardest question: care run to the standard of health. Watch it closely, and bring here what works.”

In the manifesto

“Fund the formula the reviews set, and hold it there. You can't run the biggest change programme in the service's history on a cut budget.”

In the manifesto

“Proactive family law: every separation involving children handled by a child-centred service, paid for by the crises it prevents. Shared care the default where safe, the limbo ended within 26 weeks.”

In the manifesto

“Apprenticeships tied to real planning and building projects: the trades we rebuild to build the homes.”

In the manifesto

“Make PSHE and RSHE genuinely mandatory and consistent across every school, with the opt-out limited to the sex-education part.”

In the manifesto

“SEN (additional educational needs): the code meant to guarantee support was drafted in 2020 and never made law. Finish the Bill, make it statutory, publish the waiting times. Actively researching.”

In the manifesto

“regulate by the numbers, not just the rulebook: watch prices and margins across the economy, and investigate where they stay stubbornly high.”

In the manifesto

“London must work as a day trip, so we can work toward hybrid IoM/South East careers in finance, tech and more.”

In the manifesto

“Safety on shared paths: cyclists owing people on foot the same space and care that drivers owe cyclists: slow down, pass wide.”

In the manifesto

“A new Sea Services Agreement should seek to reduce these costs: freight prices and reliability regulated, independent oversight, the boat priced like supporting infrastructure, not a profit centre, and spare capacity carried for Manx farmers and firms at the incremental cost.”

In the manifesto

“Safer roads through Santon, Marown and Mount Rule, settled by local consultation, not imposed.”

In the manifesto

“The TT Access Road: "not fit for purpose", the Infrastructure Minister's own words (2024). 320 more homes nearby won't help matters. Decide it, cost it, build it.”

In the manifesto

“My first ask of the new House: a proper, evidence-led analysis of the options, done in the open, so the programme for government is built on what works, not on horse-trading.”

In the manifesto

“Count properly. Most people who lose their job don't qualify for Jobseeker's Allowance, so they never appear in the figures: the headline unemployment number badly understates how many are out of work.”

In the manifesto

“My own analysis on the critical issues, published, and open to challenge.”

In the manifesto

“Accountability with teeth. Chief Officers and Directors legally answerable for keeping their department's finances sound.”

In the manifesto

“A public corrections log: when I'm wrong, I say so.”

In the manifesto

“Freeze, then cap. Stop hiring for back-office roles now (frontline exempt), and bring back the Government headcount limit dropped in 2015, when the time is right.”

In the manifesto

“Clear rules, kept in one place. One simple set of governance rules for projects and money, used by every department.”

In the manifesto

“Numbers you can read. Government accounts to a recognised standard (IFRS or GAAP), readable without an accountant; National Accounts reported to the IMF standard; and public data shown in ways people can actually use.”

In the manifesto

“A surgery every week: Santon, Braddan, Ballafletcher and Marown, in turn.”

In the manifesto

“Independent oversight, and whistleblowers protected, full stop. The Island had no Auditor General until 2021, and this year's reforms were watered down. A truly independent way to raise concerns. Whistleblowers should be protected.”