There are no sacred cows to protect as we look to cut the island’s £80m deficit.

That’s the message from Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan as a new cross-department team begins its work in finding £25m of unallocated savings - on top of the £33m built into last week’s Budget.

Mr Cannan said: ’There were obvious key headlines to the Budget and some parts did set a change of direction. But we are still running an £80m deficit.

’Therefore there’s still a lot of work to be done. There’s £33m of savings in the five-year plan and £25m of unallocated savings on top. That’s quite a challenge.’

Mr Cannan announced in his Budget that he has set up a cross-government team chaired by Middle MHK Bill Shimmins to find the savings required. The SAVE team will keep a close eye on day to day savings and efficiencies, but also look towards ’big ticket’ items.

Ministers and chief executives of all departments, boards and offices have been given just six weeks to provide the SAVE team with a list of the top five opportunities for reductions in expenditure.

Mr Cannan told the Manx Independent: ’What we are determined to do is give some structure and order to this. The SAVE team have been given a target to come back by July with their plan. Effectively it’s going to be an options paper.’

Could those options prove unpopular?

He replied: ’It’s not about making unpopular decisions - it’s about make the right decisions. I feel there is this sense that if it’s not unpopular it can’t be doing its job. It’s not about cuts, it’s about delivering more value for society.

’We could find some services are better off run by a different organisation and some better off in the private sector. There are no sacred cows to protect. Everybody is open to put anything in the pot. We will put them into the options paper and identify where we can do things differently.’

Mr Cannan said he didn’t want to set hares running by citing which services, if any, could be outsourced or privatised.

But he is clear he wants to do things differently. ’In the last administration everything came forward in isolation and there were hundreds of different workstreams. We need to have much more focus. We are looking at prioritising areas where we can deliver more effectively and efficiently.’

What happens if you don’t find those savings? Mr Cannan said there are safety nets. The Budget is based on forecast growth of VAT revenue which is lower than is likely.

Departments have been given budget increases in line with inflation, which will ’force them to consider value for money’.

But he added: ’If we don’t make significant progress we will have to look at alternative options. I’m not saying there won’t be cost increases but we need to control them. I don’t want a repeat of the sewerage charge which was completely disproportionate.’

Unallocated savings of £6m will have to be found in 2018/19. Then £12m in 2019/20, £19m in 2020/21 and £25m in 2021/22.

By that date the transfer from reserves will have fallen from the current £72m to £34m.