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The York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership strongly support devolution, seeing it as an enabler to long term funding, giving our region a voice at a national level and helping us to develop the right strategic programmes to support our economy prosper for the people who live and work here. 

The consultation can be found here. The deadline for responding is 16 December.

The proposed deal, if agreed, will see the creation of a combined authority between City of York Council and the new North Yorkshire Council to be chaired by a directly elected mayor. If progressed, the combined authority will come into existence in late 2023, with the mayoral election scheduled for May 2024. 

It is important to emphasise that both City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council will continue to exist in addition to the new combined authority. Councillors in North Yorkshire and York voted to progress and undertake a countywide consultation on the proposed deal at recent meetings of the NYCC Executive on September 6, 2022 and the City of York Full Council meeting on 6 October 2022.

Devolution has the potential to bring significant new investment and powers to York and North Yorkshire. The deal could unlock £540 million of new funding from the Government to spend on local priorities to produce growth, together with a range of devolved powers from government departments and agencies. Included within the proposed deal is:

• £540 million (£18 million per year) in Mayoral Investment Funding over 30 years to invest in local priorities;
• Investment of up to £50 million to support and deliver the York Central brownfield regeneration scheme;
• £7 million investment to enable York and North Yorkshire to drive green economic growth towards the ambition to become a carbon negative region;
• Investment of up to £2.65 million to deliver affordable, low carbon homes;
• £13 million for the building of new homes on brownfield land across 2023/24 and 2024/25;
• A commitment to establish a working group to support the development of BioYorkshire;
• New powers from Government to drive regeneration and build more affordable homes;
• New transport powers to improve and integrate the regional transport network.

The proposed deal represents a significant step forward in securing devolution for our region, with the potential to deliver more and better paid jobs to the area and providing new investment that will benefit our communities. It means that decisions previously taken at central government can in the future be potentially taken closer to the people of York and North Yorkshire.

As highlighted earlier, following agreement from the constituent councils, the next stage in the process towards the creation of the combined authority is a public consultation, about which we are writing to you. 

Once the consultation has concluded, North Yorkshire County councillors and City of York councillors will then be asked to consider the consultation feedback and ultimately, whether to agree the proposed deal before it is sent to the Government.  If this is agreed, the process of putting the required legislation in place will be initiated and likely take place in the new year.

As a senior stakeholder in York and North Yorkshire, and given the significance of the proposed devolution deal for our region, we would encourage you to respond to the consultation to ensure your view and/or the view of your organisation is considered. It is incredibly important that all voices are heard on this matter. If you would like to discuss the deal in more detail, then please contact us and we’d be happy to arrange a discussion with you or respond to any specific questions. Please email [email protected].

Please also find HERE a communications pack. This will enable you to also make your staff and networks aware of the consultation and encourage them to respond. 

Thank you for your continued engagement on this significant milestone in the history of our region.