Tough times lie ahead for Shrewsbury after this week’s emergency budget – but the town will weather the storm.
That’s the verdict of business leaders after the controversial package was announced on Tuesday.
Shropshire Council is expected to cut its budget by 20 per cent, saving £50 million. Cuts will include a freeze on recruitment of ‘non-essential’ posts with 1,300 jobs due to be scrapped over the next five years.
The authority has also proposed cuts in services of £2.2million.
Business leaders in the town believe promoting growth over the next three years is vital. They also claim trade could benefit in the long-term from the funding squeeze with more opportunities arising for enterprise led initiatives.
Ann Johnson, chairman of the Shropshire branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Any impact on public spending will affect small businesses because they rely on public sector spending for projects and tendering opportunities.
“But when things are not looking so good I always say that opportunity comes from it and my message would be – yes it’s going to be a tough ride but Shropshire has a huge record for enterprise already and these spending cuts will force more businesses to be enterprise led which will be good in the long run.”
Peter Bettis, chairman of Shrewsbury Business Chamber, said: “I think as long as they have in their mind that they want economic growth in the area then we will weather the storm. All we can hope is that they are wise enough to still promote growth and we now have to prioritise where we get that growth from.
“It is vital to the town to have value added activity and I think we’re looking for support from the public sector. We are worried but we also have faith in the council to not stifle growth and you’ve got to be upbeat about the whole situation.”
Council leader Keith Barrow said: “We are living in very difficult economic times, and are now moving on to look at ambitious changes in the way we deliver our services, so we can avoid cutting back important frontline services wherever possible.”
By David Seadon