February 26: Yorkshire loses out to Scotland

As much as £50m has been diverted from South Yorkshire to Scotland and Wales. Though David Cameron and George Osborne will no doubt argue to the contrary, it amounts to a transparent attempt to fend off further calls for independence.

Given the sums at stake, the region’s local authorities were well within their rights to join forces with their counterparts across Merseyside – the other principal victim of this sharp practice – and mount a legal challenge.

Indeed, it would have been an abrogation of their responsibilities to local taxpayers if they had failed to do so.

Despite losing the challenge, the fact that three out of the seven Supreme Court justices believed that South Yorkshire has lost out unfairly through a flawed allocation process speaks volumes.

There is a suggestion that one Lord changed his mind towards the end of the decision-making process, underlining just how narrow a victory this was for the Government. Another described its actions as “manifestly inappropriate”. No doubt those residents who will now see a resultant deterioration in the level of their local services have an even more forthright view.

Such funding has the power to transform communities and the fact that it failed to take into account the needs of deprived areas over wealthier ones means the allocation process was not just unfair but downright iniquitous.

Certainly Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will have some difficult questions to answer in the weeks ahead when he returns to his Sheffield Hallam constituency to seek re-election and to convince local voters that he is fighting their corner.

Stealing a march?

Risk of Yorkshire being sidelined

IN what is being hailed as a momentous milestone for the city, Manchester has been handed control of its NHS budget – all £6bn of it – in the latest stage of the shifting of powers away from central government.

There are two ways of looking at this assumption of such a weighty responsibility – the first being that it is an opportunity to prove that decentralisation is a viable option. The second is that it represents the most poisoned of chalices.

After all, the state has been unable to successfully tackle a number of factors that make Greater Manchester one of the least healthy areas in the country, can the town hall really hope to do any better with what is surely set to be a shrinking budget?

On this side of the Pennines, the concern must be that Yorkshire is fast being left behind by the speed of this devolution process, allowing Manchester to establish itself as the centre of the promised Northern Powerhouse.

Yet it should be remembered that the city is paying a heavy price for its new powers, accepting the elected mayor model favoured by Chancellor George Osborne despite the fact that Mancunians voted against such a move just three years ago.

Nevertheless, Yorkshire cities should not be made to feel that they are in danger of being sidelined simply because they remain resistant to the introduction of “metro mayors” and are unwilling to accept devolution simply on the Government’s terms.

Mr Osborne must provide reassurance to this effect when he sets out the terms of the devolution package for Leeds in next month’s Budget.

Back to basics

A fresh start for Morrisons

IF anyone should appreciate the founding principles of good service and value for money that helped to establish Morrisons as a major retailer it is new chief executive David Potts.

Having started his career in supermarkets as a shelf stacker at Tesco, Mr Potts rose to become one of the chain’s senior executives and, having departed in 2011, is untainted by the recent accounting scandal.

Such knowledge of every area of the operation should be an advantage both in terms of gaining the trust of staff who had become disillusioned with his predecessor Dalton Philips’s muddled vision and in recognising the firm’s core strengths, to which he must now return.

The challenge facing him is to reconnect with shoppers who have taken their custom to budget rivals such as Aldi and Lidl, while honing its online operation, to which Morrisons was a late arrival. It will be no mean feat – but at least Mr Potts has Sir Ken’s seal of approval.