Fairer deal for rural residents

THE reason Yorkshire’s rural heartlands are so out of pocket following the allocation of key Whitehall grants is because the funding disparity they suffer has been ignored for too long.

Despite successive governments acknowledging that it costs more to fund services in market towns, coastal resorts and remote villages, the current coalition has allowed this imbalance to fester.

And it is unlikely to change in next month’s Autumn Statement – despite more than 100 protest petitions being presented to the House of Commons demanding a fairer deal for rural communities, including one from David Cameron’s own constituency in the Cotswolds.

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The reason is this: the continued need for spending restraint, and the financial demands of Yorkshire’s largest cities which are already struggling to balance their books, mean that the coalition is not going to divert funding from urban areas to the rural shires, despite the strength of the arguments put forward by Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart and others.

Yet, even though rural residents would be amongst the first to question any move to raise taxes to shore up services, they have suffered disproportionately from the closure of village schools, health provision, post offices and other amenities. The list goes on.

This is why the status quo cannot persist any longer and why Ministers need to look at what can be done in the interim before they finally have the courage 
to look at local government’s future funding needs, a process that is already 
long overdue because of Britain’s ageing society.

That means doing what 
Mr Cameron promised at the outset of his premiership and rural-proofing every new policy to ensure that they do not penalise rural areas unnecessarily. This mindset should not be exclusive to Defra; it needs to transcend Whitehall departments.

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For, as Andrew Vine’s thought-provoking column on the opposite page sets out, there is huge potential in Yorkshire gems like Scarborough – despite the gloss having being taken off seaside resorts because of social changes.

But the danger is that 
the Government’s desire 
for local enterprise partnerships to drive growth will focus, almost exclusively, on the big cities rather than the resorts, market towns and coastal communities that can make an even greater contribution to the Exchequer if they 
have the right infrastructure in place.

Booming business

THE annual Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards, celebrated in today’s newspaper and the most prestigious event of its kind across the region, offered a precursor to the uplifting speech delivered yesterday by Sir Mike Rake, the president of the CBI.

Despite the political heat that continues to be generated by divisive issues like energy bills, it is private enterprise – and the innovation shown by those forward-thinking firms nominated for these awards – that will build a more prosperous future for Yorkshire.

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As well as their ingenuity, each of the winners has another common theme – hard work. Success does not happen overnight, even though a significant number of younger people still live under this misapprehension.

It also requires aspiring entrepreneurs to hold their nerve, as illustrated by 21-year-old Jacob Hill, whose business, The Lazy Camper, is revolutionising camping at music festivals, and which is projected to accrue an annual turnover of £900,000 thanks to its six-strong team who refused to give up when their business prospects looked bleak.

Yet, while David Cameron is rightly proud of the 
one million jobs that have been created by the private sector since the coalition came to power, the Prime Minister conceded during his recent visit to Yorkshire that this is still work in progress and that Britain’s economy still lags behind the output which was 
being generated prior to 
the credit crunch.

It is why the Tory leader needs to hold his nerve as Labour sets out a very interventionist approach to the economy – legitimate concerns about the profits of the privatised utilities, and the scale of bank bonuses, should not be used to tar the reputation of private business per se.

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Quite the opposite. As Sir Mike said with such eloquence yesterday, it is only the private sector that can deliver jobs, growth and rising living standards for all.

Tesco tactics

LIKE it or not, Tesco – and the other major supermarkets – are the new faces of the high street. They are here to stay as they pursue a relentless battle for market share.

Every little helps, proclaims Tesco’s slogan, and the firm now intends to install hi-tech screens in petrol stations which will scan the faces of customers waiting to pay for fuel.

The idea is to produce advertisements, presumably of special offers, which are tailor-made to the needs of customers.

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Irrespective of the civil liberty implications, many will be uneasy at the use of this facial recognition technology when they just want to be served as quickly as possible. Does this mean Tesco deliberately slowing down its service so the 
ads can be updated? Time will tell.