That was the message from Ian Bromley, chief executive of city development company Creative Sheffield, speaking to Sheffield First Partnership.

Mr Bromley told the organisation that brings together the public, private and community sectors that the city's Economic Master Plan, launched in January should not be changed because of short-term concerns.

"When we launched Sheffield's Economic Masterplan, talk of an economic downturn had already started," said Mr Bromley.

"However, after 10 years of success during which we saw record job growth, significant levels of inward investment and the fastest growing creative and digital and business services sectors in the country, Sheffield's economy is well placed to deal with a slow down.

"The Master Plan is for the next 10 to 15 years, a full economic cycle, so we would be foolish to prune our plans due to short-term concerns."

Mr Bromley said Sheffield had suffered worse than the rest of the country during the last two economic downturns, but he was confident that the city was now better positioned.

"There is a large amount of construction taking place and in the pipeline," said Mr Bromley.

"We haven't saturated the market with City Centre residential to the extent seen in other regional cities, and, given the lower pound and the tremors in financial services, Sheffield's relative concentration in high value-added manufacturing and engineering will likely be a major strength.

A range of new initiatives are about to be launched as part of the city's Economic Master Plan which include the launch of a major city marketing campaign at the 'RE:Inventing The City' conference at City Hall on June 19, a new executive education programme for local companies, and a series of events dubbed 'Wednesday Night Live,' designed to bring life to the city centre during the Summer.


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