Employers must not slash staff training to save money during the downturn, a coalition of senior UK businessmen and union leaders has warned in an open letter to firms.

Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Marks & Spencer, Sir Michael Rake, chairman of BT Group, Mervyn Davies, chairman of Standard Chartered, the CBI’s director general Richard Lambert and Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC have co-signed the letter, which appears in a number of national newspapers today, calling on employers to sustain or even increase their investment in training.