Plea for answers after One Yorkshire snubbed

Minister urged to find devolution alternative

TWO OF the region’s most senior council leaders last night challenged the Government to explain what devolution deal it could agree to after Ministers rejected the ambitious One Yorkshire plan despite widespread local backing.

Conservative Carl Les and Labour’s Judith Blake, representing North Yorkshire and Leeds, called for an urgent meeting with Local Government Secretary James Brokenshire following his claim that the proposal did not meet government criteria.

The announcement from Tory Mr Brokenshire was yesterday described as a “big blow to the business community” by the Yorkshire director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

And Archbishop of York John Sentamu joined the criticism of the “snub”, tweeting from an engagement in India that the Minister should “listen to Yorkshire’s united voice”.

A detailed economic document submitted to government last year set out how creating a Yorkshire-wide mayoral authority could boost the economy by £30bn a year by helping the region make the most of its assets and improving its low level of exports. But in his letter, Mr Brokenshire says such an arrangement “would involve significant departures from the type of devolution deals that we have successfully put in place elsewhere in terms of geography, governance and purpose”.

The two council leaders said: “The people of Yorkshire are no less deserving than those elsewhere in the country already benefitting from devolution deals.

“And it makes no sense for the Government, and the country, to be holding back a region of five million people, with a £112bn economy, when we could be making an even bigger contribution.

“Having rejected previous devolution submissions, Yorkshire was told by government to come up with proposals which enjoy widespread support. We did. And

now the Government has said no to those too. The onus is now on the Government to explain what it will say yes to.

“We are convinced that the One Yorkshire proposals are the best way to secure and maximise the benefits of devolution for all our communities and are urgently seeking a meeting with the Secretary of State to find a way forward.”

The Government insists it will not start talks on other devolution proposals until the Sheffield City Region deal, signed in 2015 but yet to be implemented due to local leaders’ failure to agree, is completed.

Beckie Hart, CBI Regional Director for Yorkshire and the Humber, called for the Government to publish its long-awaited ‘devolution framework’ document so local leaders know the criteria they are working towards.

She said: “Devolution is supposed to be about giving power back to local people. This snub will give businesses and communities in Yorkshire serious concerns about how this can be achieved.”

IT WAS on August 1, 2017 – Yorkshire Day – that local political leaders united in an unprecedented show of support for a plan to transfer a range of powers from Whitehall to a single regional mayor.

Fast-forward 18 months and it’s clear that, despite the support of businesses, trade unions and even the Archbishop of York, the future of the proposed One Yorkshire devolution deal is at best uncertain.

A letter on Tuesday from Communities Secretary James Brokenshire to Yorkshire’s local authority leaders, followed shortly by a statement to the media, said government officials had decided the plan did not fit the criteria for a successful devolution bid.

And as the dust settled on the decision yesterday the council leaders who submitted the plans to government, known collectively as the ‘coalition of the willing’, weighed up their next move.

The stakes could not be higher, with Manchester, Liverpool and the Tees Valley all using devolved powers handed down from government to tackle issues of regeneration, health and economic growth as Yorkshire looks on from the sidelines.

Politicians hoping a deal of some kind can be achieved will be considering the wording of Mr Brokenshire’s letter, which says the Government is prepared “to begin discussions about a different, localist approach to devolution in Yorkshire”.

Highlighting the “local appetite” for devolution elsewhere in the region, he points to “representations made previously by the Leeds City Region, York and North Yorkshire and the Humber Estuary”.

Whether any of those ideas, some of which have already been floated and rejected by government or local MPs, gain traction remains to be seen.

But one backer of a regionwide deal told The Yorkshire Post that local politicians remain “resolute” in standing by a deal that until yesterday had the support of all but two council leaders.

This is in part because while One Yorkshire was only arrived at because no other solution could be agreed on, it remains the only devolution plan with any kind of widespread backing – including the community poll of Doncaster and Barnsley carried out in 2017.

In an interview on BBC Leeds radio, Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry blamed councils for the fact a Leeds City Region deal was not agreed, ignoring the opposition from Tory MPs which effectively blocked it.

And there is incredulity that, with the expected devolution framework document setting out the criteria for successful devolution bids yet to be published as Brexit dominates the Whitehall landscape, a Minister can rule out a well-evidenced plan.

The problem stems from the perception that devolution deals can only be handed out to authorities presiding over “functional economic areas” – something Mr Brokenshire says Yorkshire and its mixture of rural and urban communities does not represent.

But One Yorkshire backers point to the North of Tyne devolution deal agreed last year, with £600m handed out to a mayoral authority covering an area which splits the North-East down the middle.

Unwilling to jettison a plan which has seen so much effort and expense go into it, local leaders who back One Yorkshire now hope to get a meeting with Mr Brokenshire at the earliest possible opportunity to try and work out the way forward.

Some see One Yorkshire – and its potential £30bn-a-year boost to the economy – as the ‘holy grail’ but one that could be arrived at via a series of smaller city region deals. And one senior Yorkshire official put it, more involvement is needed from the Government during this process: “There is a full menu of options, if they don’t like what’s on the menu, what would they like?”