‘This is the perfect time for devolution’

WEST YORKSHIRE has had to wait for more than half a decade to become a devolved region.

However, for one business leader in Bradford, the timing could not be better.

Mark Cowgill, inset, is the co-founder and director of Exa Networks, a tech firm based in Bradford city centre.

As a member of the West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce’s policy board, he has been campaigning for some time for the region to be given the chance to elect its own metro mayor.

Despite the long wait, he believes the elections scheduled for next spring could come at an ideal time.

“There is never a perfect time for a pandemic,” he told

The Yorkshire Post. “But there is a perfect time for devolution.

“We have the chance to have the biggest impact for the biggest amount of people – way more than, say, two years ago.

“You only need to look at what has happened in Manchester. We have the chance to do even better than that.” As a leader in tech and a proud Bradford businessman, Mr Cowgill believes devolution has the potential to transform the region, particularly for young people, but also retraining older workers for the digital era.

With many jobs set to be scrapped due to the Covid-19 crisis, he sees empowering digital skill levels in the region as vital.

“There is a shortage of digital skills nationally, that is well known. Adult education is going to be very important as so many people are going to need to be retrained. This was the case before we even started speaking about devolution. “There are going to be a lot of people unemployed and there will be sectors that struggle to bounce back – tourism and hospitality. “However, digital is booming.”