Region should lead from front

Yorkshire’s economic recovery

THERE WILL be relief that the coroanvirus reinfecton rates in Bradford and Barnsley – two of the country’s hotpots – do appear to be receding for now. However they also serve as a reminder, as does the renewed lockdown in Leicester, that the country needs to proceed with care and caution as restrictions are eased this weekend.

They also explain why Ministers now need to work even more closely with regional leaders to ensure that there’s a relentless focus on measures to suppress the virus and also policies to reboot the recession-hit economy.

Yet, as Chancellor Risihi Sunak prepares to address MPs, it’s also clear that each region will have bespoke wishes depending on the specific strengths and weaknesses of local economies. It is why the eminently sensible measures outlined by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, notably a VAT reduction on tourism, are such a good starting point.

They set out this region’s needs and the Government’s response will certainly need to be an agile one to limit the economic catastrophe. It is also why the group’s call for a weekly meeting between this county’s Leaders Board of town hall chiefs and a designated Minister is a sensible one while devolution is still a work in progress.

A transition board is already in place in London which enables Robert Jenrick, the Housing and Communities Secretary, to have regular exchanges with the capital’s leaders. The question is why such arrangements are not in place elsewhere when Boris Johnson rightly reaffirmed his commitment earlier this week to the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda.

If Mr Jenrick hasn’t the time, a fair assumption given his sundry controversies, a Minister needs to be allocated to each region to ensure that the Government is aware of issues, both health and economic, as they arise and can respond accordingly.