Sheffield City Region: Further funding for skills, business support and enterprise zones

SHEFFIELD CITY REGION will receive another £30.7m to fund progammes between 2016-21 that will help to grow the economic base of the area.

This extra funding is on top of the £297.3m announced in the original growth deal last July and the funding that came with the city region’s devolution deal.

Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton CBE, chairman of the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, said: “This expanded deal marks another milestone on our ‘devolution journey’ and builds on our recent gevolution deal which transferred additional powers and policy levers from Government to our city region’s decision makers.

“Work is already underway to maximise our funding and create thousands of new jobs and training opportunities for local people. This additional £30m funding will accelerate and enhance this crucial work.”

The new funding will provide capital investment in training facilities, especially around the Rail Engineering Campus planned for Doncaster, further investment in the city region’s Business Support Programme and a fund to speed up development in the Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone

James Newman, chairman of the Sheffield City Region LEP, said: “This is another step forward in ensuring that our City Region has the powers and funding that we need to grow our economy by growing local businesses and creating good jobs for local people.

“This expansion of our Growth Deal with the Government adds to our £325m allocation which we secured in the first round of Growth Deals. Once again, we are leading the charge when it comes to getting the powers and funding from the Government that local leaders need to boost growth in our private sector.”