Yorkshire to claim powers back from Whitehall

Nick Clegg will travel to Leeds and Sheffield this afternoon to announce two landmark City Deals that will see thousands of new skilled apprenticeships introduced across West, North and South Yorkshire, and the establishment of two massive investment funds totalling nearly £2bn to pay for improved transport schemes and regeneration projects across large parts of the region.

Local authority leaders are hailing “the biggest shake-up of local government since the war” as the five councils of West Yorkshire plus York, and the four councils of south Yorkshire, initiate separate moves that should eventually see two combined authorities created to wield some of the new powers at a strategic level.

For people living in the Leeds City Region, the centrepiece of the deal will be the creation of a new apprenticeship academy in Leeds, where small businesses and out-of-work young people will be brought together with the ambitious long-term aim of ending youth unemployment across the city region.

A separate apprenticeship “hub” will be set up in Bradford, with more to follow in other towns and cities in the years to come.

The councils will also announce plans to create a new city region-wide £1bn transport fund to spark massive rail investment using devolved money from Whitehall, a new levy on local council tax bills, and the newly-granted power to borrow against future revenue.

The lion’s share of the fund is likely to be targeted at upgrading rail routes between Yorkshire’s key towns and cities and other urban centres in the North, offering faster, more frequent and more reliable services to create a closer-knit Northern economy.

Across South Yorkshire, the Sheffield City Region deal – covering Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham – will create more than 4,000 new apprenticeships through a £24m Government investment that will see the private sector take control of local skills training for the first time.

The four councils will also pour newly-devolved transport money and a range of existing grants into a single £700m South Yorkshire investment fund, which will be used to drive forward growth.

Mr Clegg told the Yorkshire Post he hopes the deals will transform the fortunes of Northern cities, and that further devolution must now follow in the years to come.

“Our cities used to be great powerhouses of growth and innovation, but they have been suffocated for too long by over-centralisation in London and by only being able to do anything with the permission of some Whitehall bureaucrat,” the Deputy Prime Minister said. “Now we are turning that relationship on its head.

“This is a really big first step, but I regard it as part of a bigger agenda away from centralisation.”

Further measures to be revealed today include a plan for a separate Leeds City Region infrastructure fund totalling £200m, which council leaders say will allow them to target investment more strategically across the area.

“This deal marks the first steps of a new era which will allow the North to truly control its own destiny,” said Leeds City Council leader Keith Wakefield.

John Mothersole, chief executive of Sheffield City Council added: “This is a ground-breaking deal for Sheffield City Region, signalling an unprecedented shift in control away from Whitehall.”

Labour welcomed the announcements, and called on the Government to extend the deals to other parts of the country.

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