YP Letters: Slashing Sheffield jobs makes no business sense

From: Dr John Carlisle, Dover Road, Sheffield.
Politicians must act in the best interests of Sheffield's young people.Politicians must act in the best interests of Sheffield's young people.
Politicians must act in the best interests of Sheffield's young people.

WHILE I agree with Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh’s argument against Business Minister Anna Soubry (The Yorkshire Post, March 20) about the relocation of Sheffield BIS office to London, I think she should also have challenged the Minister on a most egregiously mistaken assumption, namely that headcount must be reduced by 2020. Why?

At a time when our productivity is lower than the G7 average by 18 per cent, she is “committed” to this reduction of personnel. In other words, the one Government department that is specifically designed to improve business performance is being cut.

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This is nonsense, based on a false belief that cutting costs improves effectiveness, when all the evidence points the other way. Cutting costs actually increases aggregate costs, as has been shown in the NHS again and again. Mrs Soubry says that sometimes “tough decisions need to be made”. So, cutting staff is a sign of strong leadership? It is not. It is lazy, easiest option, typical of bad management.

Why we have another Minister in charge of BIS who clearly has no idea of how successful businesses work is beyond me. What is clear, though, is that this Government is bad for business, not just bad for the North.

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