BBC News - Nick Clegg brands Sheffield City Council 'anti-business' 17 May 2013 Last updated at 13:21 Sheffield could miss out on nearly 2,000 new jobs because of the council's "anti-business" attitude, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has claimed. Writing to council leader Julie Dore, he said her policies were "providing a barrier to new jobs and opportunities." Mr Clegg highlighted the stalled Sevenstone project and "lukewarm reception" to IKEA's proposed move to the city as areas of concern. However, Councillor Leigh Bramall branded the claims "absolute nonsense." In his letter, Sheffield Hallam MP Mr Clegg said: "As a local MP I want to ensure that Sheffield is able to benefit from new sustainable jobs and economic growth. That's why the number of private sector jobs in Sheffield has grown by over 7,000 under this government. However, your anti-business attitude is in danger of undermining this good work. He said a "change of approach" was needed from the city's Labour-run council to allow Sheffield to "fulfil its potential." Promote business The Liberal Democrat leader said a new IKEA store would bring in 700 jobs, the Sevenstone retail project 1,000 and a new Next department store 120. The proposed £600m Sevenstone scheme in the city-centre would house about 100 shops but has been on hold since 2008. Mr Clegg's comments came just days after the city council was named as one of the "10 best councils to do business with." The winning councils were selected by a panel including the Cabinet Office, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the British Chambers of Commerce. Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis praised Sheffield's approach to "breaking up big contracts by geographical areas or specialism" to make them "more accessible to a wider variety of suppliers." Responding to Mr Clegg's comments, Mr Bramall said: "To say that we are anti-business is nonsense. We have done a wide range of initiatives just in the last two years to promote business. He said the council wanted Next to come to the city and had identified an inner-city site but the company wanted an out-of-town site. He added: "We've not said 'no' to IKEA. There's a proper planning process to go through and they've not even put in a planning application yet.