The restructuring of Bradford's schools from a three-tier to a two-tier system was the right thing to do, but for it to achieve its full potential for improvements in the education available to local youngsters much more government cash needs to be ploughed into it.

That is a point this newspaper has made time and again. And now Ofsted has agreed. Its latest report on the district's education system as a whole points to the improvements which have already taken place in the last two years. It also acknowledges that the scale of the problems was not fully appreciated initially, leading to under-funding and slowing down progress.

In fact it was only two years ago that the enormity of the task became clearly evident and extra money was sought from the DfES. It is gratifying that Ofsted now sees "significant improvements" in various areas, including support for special educational needs and inclusion, better attendance records, fewer exclusions and higher attainment.

However, the "very significant challenge ahead" that the report speaks of has been obvious from any study of the schools league tables. Education in Bradford is moving in the right direction, but painfully slowly - particularly at secondary-school level. As the report says, too many schools are in special measures and a significant number have long-standing budget deficits which are impeding their progress.

More money will speed things up, but council taxpayers can't be expected to provide it. The Government once again has to acknowledge that Bradford is a special case and stump up the cash to give it the boost it deserves.