Quango cuts hit the poorest

In case taxpayers have forgotten, it was Mr Byrne – the Treasury chief secretary in the last government – who left a flippant note for his successor saying that there was no money left.

Indeed, the last Government's recklessness prompted yesterday's cuts. These public bodies could only have been sustained if the economy had continued expanding at a record rate.

It did not, and now many people are paying a heavy price because Labour created too many quangos.

Yet, while policy-makers should always consider how such services can be provided within existing resources, the coalition Government has still to convince the electorate that these reductions – and the cost to the state of making people redundant – is a prudent course of action in these austere times.

Of course, Ministers have to make savings. That is accepted. But changes have to be implemented in a responsible way that does not impinge upon Yorkshire's tentative recovery.

Take Barnsley, a town that has yet to fully recover from the ravages of the miners' strike 25 years ago. It's only salvation has been the public sector which employs 35 per cent of

local people.

Even this financial lifeline, however, is now being discarded as Barnsley Council – the area's largest employer – loses more than 1,000 jobs because of financial pressures. It is not alone, other Yorkshire councils are making comparable cuts.

Yet the impact will be most acutely felt in Barnsley. For, yesterday, also saw 125 jobs go at Business Link in Barnsley, an organisation charged with finding work for local people. And, if this was not sufficient, Yorkshire Forward's demise, though much anticipated, is likely to lead to 6,500 fewer posts being created in the region.

Coalition Ministers claim they are on the side of the poor. It's a boast that they should try making in Barnsley, or any other Yorkshire town, that is being adversely affected by the draconian manner in which the cuts are being imposed.

For, if Ministers visited such areas, they would realise that these towns can only be weaned off their over-dependence on the public sector over a long period of time – and that far more needs to be done to encourage and nurture private enterprise.