DEFA minister Geoffrey Boot MHK says he does not think the value of the crown dependencies, including the Isle of Man, is always appreciated by some people.

The MHK for Glenfaba and Peel told the Topical Talks panel: ‘I was in Jersey a few months ago and they had some research carried out by Oxford University which showed that at the moment they have somewhere between £400 and £450 billion invested in the UK markets, supporting more than 250,000 jobs.

‘If you combine all three, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey, I reckon we have, jointly, something like around £700 billion invested through the City of London.

‘And this supports maybe half a million jobs.’

He claimed that the fact the island supported the City of London business community and jobs was not always appreciated.

international issues

Editor Richard Butt, who chaired the meeting, said it appeared international issues were now making it more difficult for people to set up businesses here as well as other issues such as the difficulty of actually finding people to work for those companies.

Mr Boot stressed the government spent a lot of time trying to target businesses and entrepreneurs to come to the Isle of Man.

He said: ‘Our business environment is good as are our living conditions. It is a very attractive environment.

‘Travelling to and from the island is often perceived as a problem.’

Tracey Bell claimed that from her perspective and talking to clients who use her clinic, people do tend to stay here after they have arrived.

She said: ‘They love the Isle of Man, but the main probblem is getting them here to begin with.

‘Then what I find is that if they get over the first two to three years, then they are here to stay.’

She then added, tongue in cheek: ‘I think they should always come over first of all in the summer rather than winter.’

Dr Bell said: ‘Here in the island we do need to try and encourage people to come here.

‘The message still needs to be pushed out because when I go to places, people still ask me why I live in the Isle of Man.

‘They say things like: ‘‘where’s that?’’ and they also say: ‘‘Don’t you pay no tax there.’’ ’

Mr Boot said : ‘Our tax collectors are as zealous as anybody.’

David Butterworth, chief executive of Manninvest, said personal tax used to be a big selling point for the Isle of Man. But he claimed: ‘Now the difference with the UK appears to be getting smaller and smaller.

‘This is not the case for the high earners but for the average working person it is.’

Dr Bell said: ‘If you want to recruit somebody on between £20,000 and £30,000 there does not appear to be a lot of difference between the Isle of Man and the UK.’

house prices

Dr Bell also talked about house prices and suggested somebody could buy a three-bedroomed house in Cheshire for between £135,000 and £145,000.

‘Here they could not do that.’

Gary Lamb asked if there was a need for more generous tax incentives.

Mr Butterworth said the average house price in the island is now £271,000.

‘That’s ridiculous’ claimed Dr Bell.

But chairman Richard Butt said that in certain parts of Manchester he was ‘astonished’ to find that some houses were £150,000 more than they are here in the island.

He said: ‘House prices appear to have been steady for the last 10 years with not much change. But in large parts of the UK prices have shot up.’

Mr Butterworth said the bulk of people they are trying to attract to the island were not going to buy million pound houses. He said the average house price in the island was £271,000.

‘A quick Google search shows average house prices in the north west of England is £196,000.

Geoffrey Boot said there were variations in house prices across the island. He added that, for instance, there were places where you could buy a three-bedroomed end of terrace house for under £200,000.

Gary Lamb said the question remained of what could be done to support people getting on the property ladder.