Getting rich quick
EVEN the deepest recession for 70 years failed to prevent Yorkshire's 10 wealithiest entrepreneurs, and their families, enjoying a £570m increase in their combined financial fortunes in the past year, according to the latest edition of the Sunday Times Rich List.
Yet, while the ups and downs of the region's business elite – longstanding names like Sir Ken Morrison, Eddie and Malcolm Healey and Paul Sykes – continue to intrigue, a more relevant question is the identity of Yorkshire's next generation of entrepreneurs, and whether this region has the right business environment to encourage a new generation of wealth-creators.
As politicians try, and fail, to look at ways of reducing levels of state dependency – whether it be the number of public sector jobs or the country's welfare bills – it will be even more important that the private sector prospers.