‘Back to work’ principle won

While the Work and Pensions Secretary was admonished for failing to provide participants with sufficient details about their rights, they did rule that the scheme was not tantamount to “slave labour”.

This is significant – it means the coalition can press ahead with this scheme and it has already passed new laws that recognise the concerns lodged by university graduate Cait Reilly, who took exception to being asked to work for free at her local Poundland store as a condition of her right to claim employment benefits.

The real shame is it cost so much time – and money – for the courts to conclude, and rightly so, that the jobless need to demonstrate a willingness to find work rather than taking their benefits cheque for granted.

Of course, there needs to be sufficient safeguards for the disabled but one of the reasons why Britain’s public finances remain in such a mess is because successive governments patently failed to put effective controls and checks in place. This is changing, but will take time.

And it is to Mr Duncan Smith’s enormous credit that he has had the political backbone to face up to his critics and press ahead with his far-reaching reforms at a time of low economic growth.

A leader who immersed himself in the intricacies of the welfare system, and the complacency of work-shy claimants, when he had the foresight to set up the pioneering Centre of Social Justice, his work goes to the core of the coalition’s economics strategy which has led to the creation of one million new jobs and 400,000 new businesses.

It also shows the importance of appointing Ministers with experience in their sphere of policy – and why Mr Duncan Smith was right to insist on being given the time to complete his welfare revolution, and bring down total costs, for the benefit of all.

Lack of dynamism

IF Leeds wants any lessons on how to maximise its potential – and the regeneration grants that are available to Northern cities – its leaders should cast an envious glance over the Pennines and look at how Manchester is transforming its fortunes.

It is a vital exercise which becomes even more critical after it emerged that up to 90 per cent of city councillors in Leeds appeared to have little knowledge about the role of the area’s Local Enterprise Partnership – and, for example, a £2bn funding pot available to successful bidders.

A poor reflection on the councillors concerned, it also highlights the new for the city’s leaders to become far more ambitious. Timidity is not a viable economic strategy for this region – or Leeds which needs to look to the future rather than picking fights with the Government over the bedroom tax or school attendance policies.

This is self-evident in Manchester, where local authority and business leaders now speak with conviction as one voice. This is why they appear to be far more effective in securing grants than other regions, a point now being recognised by an increasing number of Yorkshire MPs.

This dynamism is also reflected by Manchester’s transport infrastructure. It continues to benefit from a state-of-the-art tram system while Leeds is still waiting for work to begin on a trolleybus scheme that will be modest in comparison.

One final point should also needs to be made. The North West’s recent success stems from the fact that Manchester’s prosperity will have a very positive knock-on effect for neighbouring towns and boroughs.

Contrast this galvanising effect with West Yorkshire where too much emphasis is still placed on longstanding rivalries between Leeds and the likes of Bradford and Wakefield, and a lack of mutual trust. This mindset is slowly changing – some bridge-building has taken place – but far more will need to be done before this region can see off the formidable threat which it now faces from Manchester and others.

Best foot forward

AS one of the photogenic new faces of Ordnance Survey, Nicky Busby will have no difficulty plotting a route to one of her favourite Yorkshire locations – the delightfully-named Buttertubs Pass – to watch the world’s best cyclists race to the summit of Wensleydale on day one of next summer’s Tour de France.

One of six upwardly mobile individuals to feature in the mapping company’s Explore More campaign, the Garforth librarian, mother-of-one and enthusiast photographer is an ideal person to champion Yorkshire’s unrivalled countryside – she only took up hill walking three years ago and utilises her love of the outdoors to raise money for charity.

Yet, with so many walks to choose from, Nicky is acutely aware of the importance of ramblers being equipped with the latest tools to avoid becoming lost.

That they’re now so widely available in digital format, rather than those maps which became so unwieldy in wind and rain, shows the extent to which Ordnance Survey has moved with the times since it was founded in the 1740s.