Battered Yorkshire 'will stay mired in recession'

Five communities in the region are named in a list of 10 places with the lowest potential for growth in the country, Doncaster and Barnsley being the least likely to see any upturn, along with Grimsby in Lincolnshire.

Hull and Wakefield will also "struggle in the recovery" according to the report, which says Yorkshire suffered the biggest leap in unemployment in Britain as a result of the recession.

Researchers say parts of the region did not benefit from the boom in other parts of the country, then were hit hardest in the credit crunch when private enterprise struggled to borrow.

Yorkshire's jobless rate rocketed from 5.9 per cent to 9.6 per cent between 2007 and 2010, but the worst was avoided because of the high numbers employed in the public sector.

However, coalition Government plans to cut spending mean that towns where around a third of the workforce is on the public payroll now face further crippling job losses.

According to researchers the communities are unlikely to recover at all because there are few private industries to provide new jobs and a severe lack of skills among their populations.

Report author Neil Lee is due to officially publish his findings today at a conference hosted by the Work Foundation research agency. He said the aim of the document was to prompt action to halt decline.

The paper makes a series of suggestions which could assist towns in trouble.

Mr Lee said: "Although we have produced the list of 10 places with poor prospects, we want to move the message away from that. We are interested in policy that will change things.

"Without careful Government intervention these towns will struggle and although that is not yet on the political radar, we want to see politicians realising what may actually happen.

"There needs to be a set of different priorities, and in the face of public cuts the Government needs to take action to bring in the private sector."

Mr Lee said private businesses looking to set up in Yorkshire were currently at a disadvantage because banks were focusing lending on London and the South-East.

According to the findings, businesses in growth sectors such as the creative, low carbon and high-tech industries are also reluctant to consider those towns because of a skills shortage. This is of particular concern as Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward has made efforts to secure growth in low carbon industries.

The report shows that just 17 per cent of the population in Doncaster has a university degree, along with 21 per cent in Barnsley, 18 per cent in Grimsby, 21 per cent in Hull and 18 per cent in Wakefield.

In cities named as having most potential for growth, such as Reading, Aberdeen, Milton Keynes and Edinburgh, the number of degree-educated workers is between 30 and 40 per cent.

Last night local authority and business leaders in towns named as having poor growth prospects admitted they were facing tough times, but claimed they had their own plans.

Barnsley Council's Cabinet spokesman for development, Bill Newman, said: "We are watching the situation very closely because of the cuts the new Government is imposing and we will do everything in our power to protect jobs and services in Barnsley.

"The public sector and the private sector are intrinsically linked – we do not view them as separate economies."