Sheffield to lose Department for Business, Innovation and Skills offices

Around 250 civil servants at a government department in Sheffield are to
be relocated to London by 2018, the government has confirmed.

The Department for Business, Innovation and
Skills (BIS) has said that the cost-cutting measure

will save £350m by the end of the decade.

Staff currently based at the St Paul’s Place office

will be offered financial aid should they choose to move to the capital.

However, the decision has been blasted as irresponsible by many local politicians.

Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, said: “Relocating jobs from Sheffield to London is
absolute madness. It’s terrible for those facing redundancy, terrible
for Sheffield and terrible value for the UK taxpayer. These proposals
were never on the cards during the Coalition and should never have seen
the light of day.”

Taking a more sanguine view, Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed of the Liberal Democrats has said he is confident that the city will be able to recover from recent job losses. “Sheffield
is facing a very challenging time right now with job losses around the
city. We’ve faced trying times in the past but Sheffielders are strong
and we will bounce back, with new ideas and strong leadership.”

Today’s announcement comes only a week after HSBC announced 600 IT jobs were to be cut from their Sheffield office.

It has since emerged that soon-to-be-redundant staff at the Pennine Centre are being obligated to train their replacements in China and India via video-link.