18th April 2008


Dear Editor,

This Wednesday the Sheffield Economic Programme was rubber stamped by the Labour Council's Cabinet. The multi-million pound plan is to be a 10-15 year guide to investment in the City. There are some good moves for business, like a review of the support available for businesses and the introduction of a Creative Sheffield post, negotiated by Green Party Councillors, that will support small businesses affected by rapid development in the City.

But support for local businesses is no good without listening to local businesses. Schemes like Sevenstones, the Moor, and the rebuilding of Darnall centre ignore the concerns of small local traders in the push for being part of the "European elite". The Council have not guaranteed the successful outdoor market on the Moor a place when it is finished. In Darnall, plans to demolish and rebuild the historic town centre could, as one trader said, "have been dropped on any city in the world". Similar plans have already led to the relocation or closing of many businesses under the footprint of the Sevenstones development. This is regeneration or bust, flattening neighbourhoods and rebuilding them to bring people with money in, rather than serve the people already there.

In the way of the glossy schemes are the fish and chip shops, the grocers, and the family businesses. They cannot afford high rents and shiny retail units and many of them cannot relocate to a business park down the Don Valley. These local traders are the life blood of communities. Bringing in big national chains will mean higher prices, less local services being used, fewer local people being employed, and profits going elsewhere. The business support the Economic Programme should offer is working with local traders and communities on how they want their neighbourhoods to develop, with genuine choices about the way forward.

Jason Leman