AMONG the positive things coming out of last week’s Institute of Directors seminar on the first 100 days of the new States was the overwhelming desire of the businesses represented there to see government do well.

For island politicians, that must be very heartening. There was no sense of opposition or unnecessary criticism – just a wish that the promised joined up approach is delivered.

And on that, too, there was unanimity that things are very much better than they were in the final 18 months of the outgoing House, which was riven with personality politics and, as one speaker pointed out, must have been a pretty unpleasant place to have been.

While what’s good for business might not be what islanders generally wish for, they also wish to see a well-run island where the elected representatives act in a corporate and coherent manner.

Where the harmony between business and the States is less pronounced, however, is over public expenditure and the need to rein it in.

While the policy is to hold States spending at or below the rise in annual RPI, the business response would be more aggressive and, although government is not a business, some of the basic principles still apply. With less money coming in, the private sector response is to look to remove cost by reducing staff in administration and support roles and in management by flattening the structure there.

But wouldn’t that mean cutting services, they were asked? Certainly not, was the response. Front line staff would be the last to go and there is sufficient slack in any system to make savings.

The Guernsey International Business Association chairman calculated that States expenditure had increased by 20 to 25% in real terms in just five years but public services had not improved by that amount.

Whether the will exists to make meaningful savings will be tested later this year when a series of fundamental expenditure reviews are carried out.

How this will be approached – and how internal a review it will be – should be revealed shortly.

However, the success of the process will be judged on the cash and job savings it produces and it is playing to a critical and knowledgeable audience.