Dire threat posed by cuts

What is less clear is where these cuts will fall and what their wider impact will be – particularly in the parts of the region where the economy has become increasingly reliant on investment from the public sector.

As the Government swings an axe at the public sector, its guiding principle must not simply be the necessary process of bringing the deficit under control – as vital as that work is. It must also seek to minimise the hurt such savings will cause.

Public sector workers providing vital services, while receiving relatively low wages, were not the source of the economic crisis. They should not be the first to suffer from it, yet today there are warnings that thousands of local authority jobs could be lost across Yorkshire.

The Government is right when it says our economy needs to be rebalanced and that more needs to be done to encourage and reward enterprise. If this can be achieved it will help restore Britain to sustainable growth.

However, Ministers must also recognise that the public sector does not exist in isolation. Cuts in spending will be more difficult to justify if the knock-on effect is of damaging businesses. The decision to halt the Building Schools for the Future programme, with the loss in Yorkshire of more than 1bn of funding, is a clear example of such a cut – where the losers are widespread.

Those parts of the region which failed to capitalise on the economic boom, such as Barnsley, will see little prospect of economic growth if the shrinking of the public sector leads to increased unemployment and dwindling investment.

Equally the drop in spending must not place at risk the economic progress which was made in areas like Wakefield over the last 13 years. The city has benefited from its proximity to Leeds, along with good transport links, and has achieved the highest rate of business growth in the region.

This Government knows that the country cannot carry on spending beyond it means. But it must also recognise that it cannot afford cuts which punish ordinary working people and undermine the economy.