Yorkshire pays a heavy price

THE announcement that the Government is going back on a promise to give Sheffield Forgemasters an £80m loan is hugely disappointing – not only for the Steel City but for the many businesses and jobs allied to the manufacturer. It means that Britain is also unlikely to be at the vanguard of the new nuclear industry.

The coalition, with Sheffield MP Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister, had a chance to declare a vote of confidence in Yorkshire. Yet they have spurned this opportunity, despite the new Government promising to implement a range of policies to foster growth across the North.

It is clear dramatic savings have to be made to rescue bankrupt Britain, but with Sheffield and South Yorkshire bearing the brunt of the region-wide cuts announced yesterday, it is unclear how sufficient new jobs will now be created to sustain Yorkshire's recovery.

If Mr Clegg believes the Forgemasters deal was signed off by the former government to attract votes before the election, he is right to deplore Labour's cynicism.

However, Labour's motives are now an irrelevance – the Forgemasters deal is the new administration's responsibility and it should be assessed on its economic merits.

It offered long-term benefits not only for Yorkshire but the country's flagging manufacturing industry. It would also have funded a giant new forging press, allowing the company to become a world leader in the manufacturing of parts for a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Now that work is set to go to the Far East and the region's highly-skilled engineers, who are sought after around the globe, could follow.

Manufacturing declined dramatically under Labour; the new Government, with unemployment rising, cannot afford in these austere times to neglect industry, and, specifically, those projects that would have placed Yorkshire at the forefront of the low-carbon economy that is evolving.

It is why there will be misgivings that the Forgemasters scheme was shelved alongside 155m of cuts in the region alone – only hours after Ministers agreed the Government's 5.1bn package for London's Crossrail scheme was committed "in its entirety".

It is clear that every scheme has to be re-evaluated, but this does not justify a giant ring fence being erected around the M25's outer perimeter to protect the capital from its share of responsibility.