TWO years ago, as York struggled to recover from the worst recession in living memory, the city council joined forces with other leading organisations - including The Press and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation - to launch a pioneering anti-poverty initiative.

The council's then Labour-controlled Cabinet approved a series of ambitious two-year targets to reduce poverty. These included targets for the reduction of wage inequality, unemployment, and rough sleeping, plus several other measures.

The two year period of the anti-poverty drive has now come to an end: and as we report today, the results are mixed.

The city met two key aims - of reducing unemployment and narrowing the wage gap. But the targets in at least five other areas - including increasing the number of children from poor families taking up school meals, reducing rough sleepers, and encouraging more employers to offer the Living Wage - were missed. There was progress on some of these measures - but not as much as had been hoped.

It may not have been a complete success. But by focusing minds and efforts, we believe the initiative nevertheless made a real difference.

The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition which now runs the city looks unlikely to continue the programme now its initial two years is up.

The authority remains committed to financial inclusion and supporting vulnerable residents, said Cllr Carol Runciman, the authority's Liberal Democrat health and adult social care spokesperson. It will just be doing it in different ways.

Fair enough, perhaps. But we still think it will be a shame if an anti-poverty drive which had a unique power to focus efforts, and which was at least partially successful, is not continued.