A LEADING member of Liverpool’s business community last night expressed doubts that the city’s private sector would be able to absorb all of the expected public sector job losses arising from yesterday’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR)

However, local business leaders also welcomed some of the measures announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s speech.

Mr Osborne said that the Government would continue to support both the electrification of the Liverpool to Manchester railway and the construction of the Mersey Gateway river crossing, though last night doubts emerged about the details of this backing.

Moves to encourage more people off benefits into work were also welcomed by business leaders.

The chief executive of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce said it was not clear that growth in the private sector locally would be sufficient to offset local public sector job losses. That’s because the public sector accounts for a larger proportion of jobs in Merseyside than is typical elsewhere in Britain.

Chamber chief Jack Stopforth said: “The private sector locally is still too small to absorb large-scale public sector job losses."

While Mr Stopforth believes that the direct impact of spending cuts on business are likely to be less significant than originally feared, two elements of the cuts package were a cause for concern. Mr Stopforth said: “It is disappointing that the budget for export promotion has taken a 25% hit when politicians say they want an export-led recovery.

“Secondly, business has long since weaned itself off the grant dependency of earlier generations, but still needs publicly funded contracts to sustain its recovery.”