‘Brand Yorkshire’:
Leaders to unite for the common good
CHAMPIONING “BRAND Yorkshire” and an awareness of the region’s common strengths and aims is vital to the success of any regional devolution deal, it is claimed.
Representatives from the majority of Yorkshire and the Humber’s local authorities were due to meet in York today to discuss a renewed drive for a post-Brexit breakaway.
Coun Carl Les, the Conservative leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said the hope was that cities can unite to “capitalise on the Yorkshire brand” and recognise the individual and collective strengths of the region’s component parts.
“Leeds has a certain strength in finance but that’s not in Leeds alone,” he said.
“We have strength in agribusiness but there’s agribusiness in Calderdale and elsewhere.”
He said it was important to ensure “no one is left out” of the conversation, especially those in the county’s “hinterlands”.
Asked if the end result would finally be agreement on devolution, he said: “We are hopeful.”
Coun Keith Wakefield, who chairs the transport executive on West Yorkshire Combined Authority, stressed that devolution and an elected mayor are “two different things”. He said the renewed devolution drive represented “the biggest opportunity for decades”.
Leaders at today’s meeting will be asked to agree to discuss options and consult their own councillors, MPs, businesses, unions, universities, partners and Government during the summer about the best way to achieve their ambitions for Yorkshire.
Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council, said the reason a Yorkshire agreement had “stalled” and suffered “stops and starts” in the past was not because of a lack of agreement on key issues, but “the geography of devolution” which is more difficult than in more coherent and self-contained urban areas like Greater Manchester.
“But I think the appetite to do a deal is still there,” he stressed.
“There are various geographies that we think could be acceptable to make this work, so why not start with a coalition of the willing and go and ask the question across the whole of the Yorkshire area. I am hopeful that we will eventually get a deal – and reap the rewards in the future.”