‘ We have new tools in our hands today. Tomorrow, together, we must put them to good use.’
Dan Jarvis
AFTER YEARS of struggle, we finally have a devolution deal which gives Sheffield City Region a new set of powers and unlocks billions of pounds of additional investment.
On transport, on skills, on housing, and on development, we now have a greater ability to choose our own path, unlock our own potential, and make our own destiny.
This is a giant leap forward. With money and power shifted from Westminster, more decisions about South Yorkshire will be made in South Yorkshire.
In a public consultation, 87 per cent of people in the region supported devolution of powers away from Westminster. It is especially needed right now when coronavirus has hit our people and our economy so hard.
It has been a difficult path. As the only devolved administration without a full deal in place from the start, our job was made much, much harder.
We still achieved a lot – like securing £166m to begin an overdue revolution in active travel and public transport, and an innovative Working Win programme which helped more than 6,000 people with health conditions find and stay in work.
On Covid, I have been developing an economic recovery plan with local authorities, institutions, businesses, and others.
But our vision for South Yorkshire has to be much more than just getting back to normal: normal was already an unacceptable waste of our potential.
We need to Build Back Better, to make this a moment to tackle longstanding weaknesses and injustices.
Our aim should be a City Region transformed in three ways: stronger, greener, and fairer. We need not just a bigger economy but a better one, more resilient, more sustainable, and more closely linked to the health and wellbeing of people living here.
We need to close the infrastructure and spending gap which has long favoured the already-affluent South-East over places like South Yorkshire.
Now more than ever, the Government must fulfil its promises about ‘levelling up’.
But the shape of this levelling up matters too. We need to move towards a higher-value and higher-tech economy, so people have better jobs, and more money stays in our area. We could start by making skilled apprenticeships available to all, investing in our worldclass universities, and expanding our world-class Advance Manufacturing Research Centre into a fully fledged ‘MIT for the North’.
We need an ambitious Green New Deal – not just to decarbonise our economy, but to improve our communities, modernise our industries and create good jobs. This is quite likely the last, best chance for the UK to act on climate change, and we should be at the heart of that.
It is past time to fix our creaking railways, and to invest in a bus service that truly serves the public good. But we must also transform our infrastructure for cycling and walking, and support more compact and liveable ’15-minute neighbourhoods.’
The Northern Forest, a major treeplanting effort across the region and wider north, can also help regenerate our towns – and be part of much-needed investment in flood prevention. Finally, investing in culture and tourism can help both the economy and quality of life.
Taken together, we can unleash South Yorkshire’s potential – contributing to northern and national prosperity. It’s an enticing vision. But it will only partly be realisable even with these new powers.
This landmark agreement is a great step forward, but it is not the end of the journey. What we have across England is still too often delegation, not devolution, with regions dependent on handouts that are often tied to projects and policies aligned with Westminster’s priorities, not ours.
Devolution does not stop at city-region level. This is the start of our journey and working together is more important than ever before. While the deal signed today unlocks new possibilities, we have to realise them ourselves. To do that we have to work together. If we fail to, we will waste this opportunity, and South Yorkshire will pay the price.
Like the UK itself, the Sheffield City Region is a whole made up of four parts. There is rightly a division of labour between our four local authorities – Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield – and SCR.
The City Region on its own can only do a fraction of what we can do if our constituent councils collaborate effectively. My ambition is to use every bit of our new powers to help our people: the alternative is more bumping along the bottom, more wasted potential.
We have a choice – and a responsibility – to make this work. We have new tools in our hands today. Tomorrow, together, we must put them to good use.
While the deal signed today unlocks new possibilities, we have to realise them ourselves. To do that we have to work together. If we fail to, we will waste this opportunity...