AFTER many broken promises and much delay, government seems at last to be taking seriously the fundamental issue of overspending in the public sector.

At a ministerial meeting last week, members of the executive agreed unanimously that spending should be reviewed with a view to addressing forecast deficits and to ensure that the Island once again lives within its means.

After the meeting it was announced that a process called the Comprehensive Spending Review is being launched to analyse all areas of States expenditure so that the highly significant sum of £50 million will, in due course, be saved each year.

Although the present public sector deficit will be allowed to run on in the short term because of these recessionary times, Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf has spoken of his absolute determination to move Island finances back into the black.

The review will look at the range of services delivered by the States, the efficiency of those services deemed to be essential and the extension of the user-pays principle. More specifically, terms and conditions of employment, court and case costs, health and social services, education and allied services, social security, and the activities of the Home Affairs department will be examined.

There can be little doubt that a review of this scale and depth will strike a very favourable chord with a great many members of the electorate. It should also give the lie to the tired old claim that public sector services are so lean that there is no scope for cuts or economies.

That said, there will also be rumblings of discontent from a number of quarters. For example, States departments will no doubt be concerned that their budgets are about to be cut. In addition, there will be alarm and even unrest among the unions, who will no doubt resist any attempts to revise the terms of public sector employment.

These groups, and any others whose vested interests are threatened by the review, will simply have to get used to the idea that they, like the rest of us, must start to live in the real world.

However, although the new promise of economies and efficiencies will be widely welcomed, it will soon become apparent that belt-tightening will be required not only in government departments but also among the general public. It seems inevitable that some services will disappear, and the expression ‘user pays’ conveys a meaning that cannot be misconstrued.

In addition, although the spending review is clearly a major – and indeed vital – initiative, balancing the books will also involve tax increases. The shape that these will take is as yet unclear, even now it is acknowledged that they will be part of the programme designed to produce economic equilibrium.