The news that half of Bradford’s wards are considered deprived enough to warrant Government funding is sobering indeed.

It is no great revelation, of course, that there are high levels of deprivation in some areas of Bradford – that has been highlighted many times by the Telegraph & Argus in the past.

But to see it written down in black and white that 15 of the 30 wards in the Bradford district are classed as “significantly deprived” and have attracted cash from the Government’s Neighbourhood Matched Fund does not make for happy reading.

Council leader Ian Greenwood is right to feel “indignant” that so little work has been done to narrow the gap between the poorest areas of Bradford and those with a better standard of living.

If there is a silver lining in this black cloud, though, it is that the very fact these statistics have been unveiled has led to the Neighbourhood Match Fund putting £700,000 into improving matters.

This might seem a substantial amount at first glance, but for a borough the size of Bradford it must be very wisely spent if it is to be spread over half the district and do some good.

We hope that this money will be spent on the front-line of these deprived wards and will go to improving the lot of those who live there, and not get swallowed up in adminstration or bureaucracy.

The statistics do nothing to ease the “grim up north” image that the rest of the country has of post-industrial districts such as Bradford.

But very often you must accept the scale of a problem before it can be fixed, and this might be the first step towards a greater recovery programme.