Cruellest cuts come quickly

No part of Yorkshire will be spared. Whether it is in terms of city centre building developments, rural broadband projects or the cultural sector, as well as Business Link, all of which have been directly hit, or the hundreds of companies that make up the supply chain, which will feel a huge knock-on effect, the pain is being distributed far and wide.

The Conservatives won the electoral mandate to shrink the public

sector – and quickly. What Britons didn't vote for was the scrapping of schemes which were designed to have a major "ripple" effect on the local economy.

Bradford, clearly, is one such city. The centre is in vast need of improvement and has been left with a hole in the ground since the private sector-led Westfield shopping centre development stalled. Now other schemes, such as the Business Forest and City Park, are in question as Yorkshire Forward slashes its budget.

It has done this in haste. While it had months to plan for such an eventuality, it was allowed only a tiny window in which to act on the coalition's demands. Ten days is not enough to decide how to wield the axe on projects which will result in truly devastating job losses. The effects of such haste could be felt for decades.

Whether for political gain, or economic necessity, or both, the coalition has acted quickly, as it did in cancelling the 80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters. This speed will create enormous problems for the businesses and local authorities involved in threatened or newly-closed regeneration schemes

Regional development agencies, the brainchild of John Prescott, are on their way out, even though many of them, like Yorkshire Forward,

accepted the need for reform in these austere times.

Doubtless some of the schemes will be resurrected, but it is has yet to be proven whether the agencies' replacements, local economic

partnerships and the Regional Growth Fund, can offer the same sense of leadership and strategy which is vital to a sprawling county like Yorkshire.