Selling the skills of Yorkshire plc

Yorkshire is already well-placed to bounce back, with its companies having experience in industries as diverse as medical equipment and food, as well as many more. They should not be left to do it alone, however. Businesses in this region, ranging from start-ups to stock market giants, are particularly strong in the export market and should be given the skills to perpetuate that success.

A competitive international marketplace and a vast amount of red tape in Britain and the EU means it can be hard for companies, particularly smaller ones, to succeed on their own. Support from Government remains vital.

The warning from leading businessman Kevin McCabe that Yorkshire could be hit, unless there is more help from the Government, is alarming. The gap in public finances should not be used as an excuse not to market this region's skills and products on foreign shores.

Mr McCabe, whose success in Far Eastern markets, particularly China, has been outstanding, will take his message to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at a meeting today in Sheffield. No doubt staff at Sheffield Forgemasters, which saw the cancellation of an 80m Government loan designed to find new markets, would back him up. It is an important lesson for Mr Clegg who has pledged to deal with the deficit without "repeating the mistakes of the 1980s".

That recession saw British manufacturing decimated and our

universities, hospitals and other vital infrastructure starved of investment. Regions outside the South-East were worst hit. To avoid that happening again, Government must heed Mr McCabe's advice about marketing the whole of the UK, not just London.

Ministers have set themselves a tough task by abolishing regional development agencies at the same time as trying to drag Britain back to economic prosperity. They must urgently decide how to capitalise further on the outstanding skills and talent of Yorkshire – or we could be paying the price for decades to come.