Letter: Savings from City cuts should be invested in Shropshire's future

In London about one in 20 people are employed in the public sector. I think the figure for Shropshire is about one in four and for some parts of the country as high as one in two.

If you cut back in the public sector not only do you lose services at the front end in terms of day centres and care you take money out of the system that would pass on to private business. In the long term this means a decay in the infrastructure and a lack of opportunity for youngsters.

Shropshire has to find an answer and I believe this to be the attraction of business currently based in London, but first you need to accommodate and attract such business and this in turn means providing the right people as well as the right place. There is a shortage of the right people in London and the French take advantage of that and there are lessons to be learned from this.

They have made a huge success of moving into London grabbing the top jobs in finance and other areas. These are jobs that really could be going to capable home grown candidates.

The way they do this is by having a highly intensive academic system that hot houses youngsters from the word go with the école maternelle.

It progresses with tough competition right up to the grandes ecoles which are a sort of Oxbridge.

If Shropshire is to attract prime business, financial or otherwise then it needs to run such intensive courses that would attract these firms as well as providing quality candidates for local firms. This would enable local talent to stay in Shropshire, and enable those who cannot afford further education fees to develop such skills.

The City of London finance sector has engaged in a spiral of wage inflation which is quite remarkable. A secretary for example may earn an okay salary but find that trebled by the bonus.

There is also the interest free mortgage that is in theory limitless but usually enough to buy a nice flat or house for more senior people.

A "lower wattage" property market in Shropshire would be attractive to firms facing a shortage of staff without having to recruit at high cost but this does not mean recruiting inferior people.

When you live in Shropshire you see plenty of raw talent that suffers from a lack of education and a lack of opportunity.

The only way out for Shropshire to replace a declining public sector is to create a new infrastructure and I think that savings from the public sector and savings generated in places like the City of London should be deployed to create this.

Robin Lloyd

Ellesmere