Regional leaders urge Boris to back ambitions
The Leaders of West Yorkshire and York councils and the Chair of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership have called on the Prime Minister to support their “ambition to create a region delivering clean growth which benefits all our communities.”
In an open letter to Boris Johnson, the leaders call for the Prime Minister to provide the powers and funding to enable them to make progress.
Highlighting a devolution settlement as an “urgent priority”, the letter sets the goal of making significant progress by the first Budget. Stating: “Our urgent priority is to secure the benefits of devolution for all our communities. This is a vital part of completing the devolution map across the country and will enable us to drive economic growth, tackle the climate emergency and regenerate, strengthen and level up our towns.
“We seek to build on the progress made following your speech in Rotherham supporting Yorkshire-wide collaboration and opening up negotiations on a possible Leeds City Region agreement, as well as deals covering the rest of Yorkshire. We ask that these productive discussions continue, with a view to agreeing a way forward that can be announced in your Government’s first budget.”
The correspondence also asks Mr Johnson to recognise the significant pressures on local government and to deliver a funding settlement which addresses that demand.
Alongside the letter signed by the leaders and LEP Chair, were high level notes on the topics of devolution, skills, transport, tackling the climate emergency and development of mass transit proposals.
