A regional renaissance

THE process of adapting to the drastic economic changes of the past 30 years has been a long and painful one for South Yorkshire. The decline of the old staple industries of coal and steel brought with it a terrible social cost, yet South Yorkshire is not only surviving, it is once again starting to thrive as a centre of new industrial skills and expertise.

The latest manifestation of this is the announcement of a new press at Sheffield's Forgemasters, the last remaining British-owned steel-maker, which will see the city become a world leader in the manufacture of equipment integral to the modern nuclear reactors that are essential to meeting global energy needs.

The Government may have dragged its feet over recognising the need for new nuclear plants, but now that it has at last sprung into action, this region stands ready to reap the benefits. Indeed, the 160m Forgemasters deal follows hard on the heels of the announcement of a new nuclear research centre at Catcliffe, near Rotherham, while Rolls Royce has agreed to build a civil nuclear manufacturing facility nearby.

These developments hold the promise of thousands of much-needed jobs, yet they have not been handed to South Yorkshire as acts of charity or because the area has held out a begging bowl. On the contrary, they are a response to the resilience and ingenuity South Yorkshire has shown in adapting its traditional skills base to the demands of modern engineering and in recognising that the world's clean, green future lies in low-carbon technology.

As a result, while the area may no longer be the capital of the steel industry, South Yorkshire is showing that it is still very much at the cutting edge.