Declaration of intent to stand for MHK in Onchan

PDF version to download is here.

To the residents of Onchan,

This declaration is to show my intent to stand for election to the House of Keys in September 2026, representing Onchan. I am a scientist, a business founder, a resident of Onchan, and a parent whose son will start at Onchan School in 2027. I am tired of watching real problems get strategy documents instead of a measurable solution with named accountability. I am standing because I believe this constituency and this Island need a representative who combines genuine scientific and economic expertise with a clear commitment to fairness, and who has already demonstrated what that looks like in practice.

About me

I was born on the Isle of Man and went to St Ninians and then left for university in 1999 and built a career in the UK scientific civil service. I returned to the Island in 2017 to care for my terminally ill mum and founded Taxa Genomics - the company I still run today - the same year. We were initially based in Village Walk but in 2022 we outgrew our original premises and moved to a larger industrial unit at Eden Business Park in Braddan.

In March 2020, I volunteered to establish the Isle of Man’s COVID-19 testing laboratory. At a point when the Island had no on-Island testing capacity, I helped build one. Within days, Manx residents could receive same-day results rather than wait for their samples to be processed off-Island. My work was recognised and praised in the official independent Isle of Man COVID Review. I set up the lab because I had a skillset and experience that the Island needed, and it was the right thing to do. That is the same reason I am standing now.

I hold a PhD in biosciences. I have built a company from scratch, managed staff, navigated regulation, and dealt with the real pressures that come with running an Isle of Man business that deals with worldwide customers. I know what it takes to create something that lasts.

What I hope to achieve

Increasing the quality of life for everyone on this Island depends on practical action, not announcements. Here is what I will push for.

Families

The Island’s birthrate is currently being outstripped by the death rate. On average only 600 babies are being born each year on the Island (down from more than 1000 per year twenty years ago) and cost is often a major factor when deciding to have children or deciding to have more children. We need to make the Isle of Man a welcoming place for young families and make the Island more family friendly.

The childcare credit currently becomes available in the academic year when a child turns three. This is too late. Parents - and in practice, disproportionately mothers - are locked out of the workforce for years longer than necessary, not because they want to be, but because childcare costs make returning to work financially unviable. I will push to expand the eligibility for the childcare credit to babies from six months old, so that parents who want to return to work are helped to do so. The Island needs skilled people in work, and this is a direct way to make that possible without inward migration from the UK and beyond.

Paired with this, employers should be incentivised to offer school-hours roles. As someone who employs people, I can tell you that parents are frequently among the most organised and efficient workers in any team. Flexible, school-hours employment keeps skilled people in the workplace, reduces pressures on wrap-around childcare, and benefits employers who are willing to think beyond the standard working day.

I will push for an Island-wide parent parking scheme, with passes issued at the same maternity appointment as the MATB1 form. Removing parking hassles is a small thing that makes daily life with young children materially easier, and the absence of adequate parent parking and absence of a consistent approach across the Island is an entirely solvable problem.

The Housing Crisis

Onchan residents, like people all over the Island, are watching housing costs outpace wages, social housing waiting lists grow, and residents struggle to find good quality homes to rent or buy within their budget. This is the single biggest pressure on working families and professionals on the Island, and it’s putting young workers off the Island entirely. This is a real problem for recruitment and retention of staff for businesses.

The Island needs a significant increase in social housing supply and the supply of affordable homes for those who want to get on the housing ladder. I would like to see all new housing developments include a proportion of homes designated for social housing, with the Government providing the loans and funding to enable local authorities to deliver this. A further proportion of the homes on new developments should also be affordable, but a clear metric developed for what constitutes affordable now and in future, linked to median earnings. My grandparents were one of the first families to move into a home in the Willaston estate when it was built. We need politicians who have the same vision our forefathers had in the last century when they built Willaston, Pulrose, and Anagh Coar, but with a modern pepper-potted approach to social integration, so social and private homes sit alongside each other rather than being segregated.

The Economy

Every candidate will tell you that the economy matters and I want to be specific about what I mean by that.

The Isle of Man’s economy is heavily weighted towards financial services. That concentration has served the Island well since the 1980s, but it created structural vulnerability. The eGaming sector provided another pillar to the structure, but that is also becoming vulnerable, with hundreds of jobs lost in the sector over the last 3 years. Diversification of the economy is not an aspiration, it is a necessity to protect the funding of our public services, and the time to act on it is before a crisis, not during one. A hundred small businesses combined employ the same number of people as a large eGaming company or bank, but with a significantly stronger and more resilient structure to the IoM economy.

I will push to build genuine support for SMEs and startups, and the infrastructure that enables businesses to sell their products and services from the Island easily. Not in the form of vague encouragement and schemes developed by civil servants who have never run their own businesses. But through practical access to international online payment gateways, business-friendly and efficient postal and courier services, targeted investment in skills, and a procurement approach that gives local businesses a real chance to compete for government contracts. I started a company here with nothing but expertise and determination. I know exactly where the obstacles and bottlenecks are.

A stronger, broader private sector is also the most sustainable way to fund the public services - healthcare, education, infrastructure - that people in Onchan and across the Island depend upon.

Healthcare

Manx Care’s funding ultimately comes from taxpayers, and we need to know that the money is performing well for us.

I will push for Manx Care to publish a monthly public dashboard showing, by specialty: the number of patients waiting for an initial appointment, appointments held, procedures completed, missed appointments, and waiting time to first appointment, or first treatment. This is standard practice in the UK NHS and there is no good reason it is not standard practice here. Without it we are being asked to trust a system we cannot measure.

I will also push for the long-term financial security of Hospice Isle of Man. We fund the beginning of life, and we should fund a dignified end to it. My own mum died in Hospice in 2017, and I understand first-hand the services it provides a whole family, not just their patient. Hospice is not a nice-to-have, it is a critical Island service delivering care that families cannot provide alone, and that a hospital ward is not designed to give. Its funding should reflect that, and their ability to provide those critical services should not depend on the outcome of a charity fundraising drive.

Mooir Vannin Wind Farm

The proposed Mooir Vannin offshore wind farm is the issue I know I will be asked about, so let me address this straight away. I will not give you a simple yes or no, because anyone who has given you a simple yes or no on a project of this scale and complexity either has not read the detail, or is telling you what they think you want to hear.

What I will tell you is this: I have the scientific background to evaluate the environmental evidence properly, and I intend to do exactly that. The ecological impact on marine habitats, the cumulative effects on species and water quality, the robustness of the environmental assessment process: these are the questions I am qualified to interrogate. So are the energy economics and the long-term benefit to the Island versus the costs and risks.

Constituents deserve a representative who will scrutinise this with rigour rather than react to it with instinct or emotion. I will do that, and I will be transparent about what I find.

Over the coming months

The Isle of Man needs representatives who bring real, recent, applied expertise into the chamber. I have built something here; I have responded when the Island needed help. I have the scientific and economic knowledge to engage with the most consequential decisions this island faces over the next five years.

Over the next few months, I will be talking to as many people as possible on the doorstep. I want to hear what you think about my ideas, hear you tell me what’s wrong with them so I can refine them, and tell me what is most important to you.

I’m asking for your vote because I will work hard, speak plainly, and make decisions based upon evidence.

Dr. Rachel Glover

Candidate, Onchan constituent

House of Keys General Election, 24th September 2026

Published 22nd May 2026 by Dr. Rachel Glover