These include some of Gibraltar's largest and most prestigious landlords of some of the most important commercial properties in Gibraltar and I want to express the Governments gratitude for the extraordinarily positive approach.
The Government itself will extend its measure beyond the sectors initially proposed and will be providing full details of the sectors to be supported in this way.
Again, the list of sectors which are not affected will be shorter than those that are not affected.
Additionally, I will be meeting with the Gibraltar Landlords Association to on Monday (today) to discuss how best this sector can continue to assist businesses through this crisis.
Measures may also be required in respect of residential rents payable to landlords.
In this respect I will propose a measure for private landlord rents to be treated in the same way as commercial rents in cases where a landlord enjoys the benefit of the property rented free of a mortgage or where the landlord is able to secure mortgage relief from the lending institution involved.
This measure, as all others I am considering, will be implemented only AFTER I have met with the Covid Economic Liaison and Advisory Committee which I am hereby establishing.
I will invite Unite the Union and the GGCA as well as the GFSB, the Chamber, the GBGA, the Finance Centre Council and the Landlords Association to form part of the CELAC.
23-03-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
The largest spending department of all in our government structure is the Gibraltar Health Authority.
Not only would such meetings now detract our key civil servants from planning and executing our defence against this virus, they would also be wholly inconsistent with our social distancing objectives.
It is unrealistic in the extreme that these meetings could now go ahead.
Like so many aspects of what we have hitherto considered to be normal or routine, they have had to be cast aside in these moments of massive human and economic uncertainty.
One of the things we would be doing would be assessing what the forecast outturn for the year would likely be by the end of March and any unusual or extraordinary expenses we might have in the last quarter would have to be factored in.
Of course this year, whilst our estimates were being assessed, our costs across the board are all being severely affected by the unusual and extraordinary expenditure that we are seeing and committing to in our fight against this virus.
And this will not just be reflected in the last months of the financial year, but in the coming months of what would then be the new financial year.
At this stage, we are unable to have any clarity on how spending will have to evolve.
We cannot see trends yet when dealing with a new threat that is not yet even hitting us as hard as it will.
This is not only an expenditure in terms of the GHA.
The GHA will have whatever it needs in order to deal with this virus.
But there is also the expenditure that we are expecting in associated areas such as contingency planning and the cost implication of our injections of measures for our economy generally in respect of the initiatives announced and to be announced in support our economy during this challenging time.
As we have stated in various of our press statements, the economic measures I have announced will need to be dynamic and may need to be updated as this public health crisis evolves.
23-03-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
The largest spending department
This is a time in the calendar where I would usually engage with the Financial Secretary and convene meetings with the larger departments, as might have been necessary, to discuss their budgetary requests for the next 12 months such that the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure could be laid in Parliament by the end of April as is required by the Constitution. The largest spending department of all in our government structure is the Gibraltar Health Authority. Not only would such meetings now detract our key civil servants from planning and executing our defence against this virus, they would also be wholly inconsistent with our social distancing objectives. It is unrealistic in the extreme that these meetings could now go ahead. Like so many aspects of what we have hitherto considered to be normal or routine, they have had to be cast aside in these moments of massive human and economic uncertainty. One of the things we would be doing would be assessing what the forecast outturn for the year would likely be by the end of March and any unusual or extraordinary expenses we might have in the last quarter would have to be factored in. Of course this year, whilst our estimates were being assessed, our costs across the board are all being severely affected by the unusual and extraordinary expenditure that we are seeing and committing to in our fight against this virus. And this will not just be reflected in the last months of the financial year, but in the coming months of what would then be the new financial year. At this stage, we are unable to have any clarity on how spending will have to evolve. We cannot see trends yet when dealing with a new threat that is not yet even hitting us as hard as it will. This is not only an expenditure in terms of the GHA. The GHA will have whatever it needs in order to deal with this virus. But there is also the expenditure that we are expecting in associated areas such as contingency planning and the cost implication of our injections of measures for our economy generally in respect of the initiatives announced and to be announced in support our economy during this challenging time. As we have stated in various of our press statements, the economic measures I have announced will need to be dynamic and may need to be updated as this public health crisis evolves. 23-03-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR This is a time in the calendar where I would usually engage with the Financial Secretary and convene meetings with the larger departments, as might have been necessary, to discuss their budgetary requests for the next 12 months such that the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure could be laid in Parliament by the end of April as is required by the Constitution.The largest spending department of all in our government structure is the Gibraltar Health Authority.
Not only would such meetings now detract our key civil servants from planning and executing our defence against this virus, they would also be wholly inconsistent with our social distancing objectives.
It is unrealistic in the extreme that these meetings could now go ahead.
Like so many aspects of what we have hitherto considered to be normal or routine, they have had to be cast aside in these moments of massive human and economic uncertainty.
One of the things we would be doing would be assessing what the forecast outturn for the year would likely be by the end of March and any unusual or extraordinary expenses we might have in the last quarter would have to be factored in.
Of course this year, whilst our estimates were being assessed, our costs across the board are all being severely affected by the unusual and extraordinary expenditure that we are seeing and committing to in our fight against this virus.
And this will not just be reflected in the last months of the financial year, but in the coming months of what would then be the new financial year.
At this stage, we are unable to have any clarity on how spending will have to evolve.
We cannot see trends yet when dealing with a new threat that is not yet even hitting us as hard as it will.
This is not only an expenditure in terms of the GHA.
The GHA will have whatever it needs in order to deal with this virus.
But there is also the expenditure that we are expecting in associated areas such as contingency planning and the cost implication of our injections of measures for our economy generally in respect of the initiatives announced and to be announced in support our economy during this challenging time.
As we have stated in various of our press statements, the economic measures I have announced will need to be dynamic and may need to be updated as this public health crisis evolves.
23-03-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR