Mayor’s bold £860m plan to aid region
Jarvis wants to borrow £500m from the Government to create and protect jobs
YORKSHIRE’S ONLY metro mayor has announced plans to “rewrite the rule book” by borrowing half a billion pounds from the Government to help his area recover from the pandemic.
Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis wants to use the money for a stimulus package worth up to £860 million to revitalise the local economy and transform the region.
In what the Labour mayor describes as a New Deal for South Yorkshire, hundreds of millions would be invested into schemes to protect, create and attract thousands of jobs, train workers and apprentices, back businesses to locate and grow in the region and transform infrastructure.
And while £360m will come from next year’s mayoral authority budget, he is proposing to borrow against the value of his 30-year “gainshare” fund agreed as part of last year’s devolution deal to pay for the rest. Rather than £30m a year being given to the Sheffield City Region for the next three decades, he would enter into talks with the Treasury about borrowing £500m to spend from 2022 onwards.
This would be spent on £300m of investment in local places including infrastructure and transport and £200m of funding for jobs and skills. It is thought to be the first time a northern metro mayor has tried to borrow money in response to the current economic crisis, although Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has borrowed to pay for taking Teesside Airport into public ownership.
It comes amid claims that the Government’s new Levelling Up Fund favours rural areas, by giving greater weight to how long car journeys take to get to work rather than public transport, when deciding where will be first in line for investment.
A think-tank has also accused the Government of turning back the clock to the 1990s in adopting a piecemeal approach to tackling regional economic disparity.
Lee Rowley, a Tory MP in neighbouring North East Derbyshire and the party’s deputy chairman, said last week’s Budget showed the Government was determined to tackle the issue. But he said it was also key that “the pendulum doesn’t swing on one direction too far” and areas in the North still had autonomy.
Mr Jarvis said: “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Despite the challenges Covid throws at us, our plan sends a crystal-clear message of ambition and confidence: that South Yorkshire is open for business and ready to prosper.
“The Government may not be willing to back our region but local leaders and I will not stand by and let our potential be squandered. That’s why we’re rewriting the rule book, using powers and resources secured from Westminster, to invest in our people, our businesses and our towns and high streets.”
A total of 3,425 people have died in South Yorkshire within 28 days of a positive Covid test, equating to 2.7 per cent of all national deaths, despite only having 2.1 per cent of the population.
A Government spokeswoman said: “It is wrong to claim that the Government is not willing to back South Yorkshire. Last week’s Budget clearly demonstrates how the Government is levelling up all areas of the country by devolving money, resources and control away from Westminster.”