Mayor ‘will not raise tax for projects’
Jarvis says he will not follow others and impose precept after devolution
YORKSHIRE’S ONLY metro mayor says he will not be asking residents to pay an extra tax to fund major projects after taking a significant step towards reaching a long-awaited devolution deal.
Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis and council leaders yesterday approved plans for a public consultation into its £30m-a-year-devolution deal which could lead to it being signed into law in June.
The deal with the Government could see a transfer of powers and funding to South Yorkshire which would include a deputy mayor, extra powers on public transport and the ability to keep 100 per cent of business rates.
But Mr Jarvis told The Yorkshire Post that he would not be following the example of metro mayors in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region by imposing a mayoral precept when the devolution deal is finally implemented.
Such a levy, which elsewhere is used to pay for the mayor’s priorities, would be added to residents’ council tax bills and is described in a Sheffield City Region report as a means to meet costs
not paid for by devolved funding from the Government.
But Mr Jarvis said: “I don’t have any plans whatsoever to do what others have done and introduce a mayoral precept.”
He said that while the extra powers and resources for his office were important, the biggest advantage of a devolution deal was a metro mayor’s power to
“develop an agenda which people can buy in and support”.
He said: “So, no to a mayoral preset, that wasn’t anything that I ever committed to in a manifesto and I think frankly, this is the sort of thing that would need to be in a manifesto, so I ain’t doing it.”
Mr Jarvis will also be able to have borrowing power in order to get more funds. Bosses say the mayoral combined authority ‘should have control’ over the consolidated devolved capital transport budget.
There will be full devolution of the adult skills budget which provides training for people over the age of 19 at colleges across the region.
Extra powers on housing are also being sought in order to ‘improve the supply and quality of housing’ to secure the ‘regeneration or development of land or infrastructure’.
The consultation will be launched on February 3 with the results to be reported in the week commencing April 13
Secretary of State Robert Jenrick will consider the report, before drawing up a draft order which will need to be agreed by Sheffield City Region leaders. If all goes well it will be laid before Parliament by June.
ONE OF the great frustrations in recent years for those involved with the South Yorkshire devolution deal has been the contrast between the tortuous lack of progress in their area and other places such as Greater Manchester and the West Midlands forging ahead with extra money and powers.
The reasons for the delay in bringing the £30m-a-year Sheffield City Region to deal to fruition centred around a wish from Barnsley and Doncaster councils, supported by the results of local referendums, to be allowed to join a wider Yorkshire deal in future.
Now that the impasse has at last been broken following extensive talks, the South Yorkshire deal could finally be signed into law in June. Local residents will also be heartened to hear that Mayor Dan Jarvis has no plans to add to their council tax bills unlike other areas with devolution deals that have used their precept-raising powers.
But now the Sheffield City Region deal is finally back on track, it is vital that others areas of Yorkshire are not now left behind on devolution.
As such, it is heartening to see Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry involved in what he has described as a “devolution dash” involving meetings with other council leaders from across Yorkshire throughout this week, as well as Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick’s optimism that deals could be in place by the end of this year.
In the long-term, such regional agreements could ultimately provide the foundations for an eventual Yorkshire-wide arrangement. But more immediately, they will help to bring the entire county up-to-speed with what is happening around the country in regards to devolution. Following a lull in the devolution agenda during Theresa May’s premiership, delivering on devolution in Yorkshire will be vital if Boris Johnson is to truly deliver on his promise to ‘level up’ the country.