West Yorkshire to move into Tier 3

After days of discussions between West Yorkshire Leaders and government ministers, it has been announced the region will move into Tier 3 lockdown from Monday 2 November.

The decision follows an increasing infection rate with Bradford reporting 483.5 cases per 100,000 of the population and comments from the hospitals that they had “exceeded the peak position” that they had encountered during he first national lockdown in April.

In fact according to Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council and chair fo the West Yorkshire Combined authority, the delay in the region moving in to the top tier of restrictions was due to the Government being unsure of whether Tier 3 business grants were on top of the Tier 2 grants already in place, something she says it took them “a few days to settle”. It has now been confirmed that West Yorkshire will receive additional financial support, but Hinchcliffe warned it would not be enough.

In a joint statement following a meeting wit the Secretary of State on Thursday (29th October) the West Yorkshire council leaders said: “With great reluctance, we have accepted that West Yorkshire will now move into Tier 3 (Very High) restrictions as of 00.01am on Monday 2nd November.

“The virus spread is now at a critical juncture. Not only are infections rising in our region, particularly amongst the elderly, but we already have evidence that the NHS is starting to struggle to deliver essential elective care.”

The leaders  added that as soon as it was clear that tier 3 restrictions would be required they have “been negotiating hard to secure a package of support for our region and our residents – with the aim of reducing the financial uncertainty for people and businesses”.

The package which has been secured is worth an additional £59.3m – a similar figure to Manchester and a larger sum than was given to South Yorkshire last week (£40m) – and is separate to the existing business grants previously announced by the Chancellor for Tier two,  and covers:

• A one-off additional amount of £20 per head: for West Yorkshire this is estimated to be worth £46.6m in additional funding.
• A total of £8 per head to support enhanced test and trace and contain measures, resulting in an additional £12.7m.

However despite the fact that additional funding has been made available leaders warned  that they remained “deeply concerned” about the impact of further lockdowns on both region’s people and economy, stating that this had been “desperately underestimated by government”.

In fact speaking to the BBC Hinchcliffe said it was “frustrating” that “they [the government] were underestimating how much money it is going to take to rebuild the Northern economy”, adding that the region “will have to go back for more [money]”.

In addition to the economic package of support alone the region has agreed a full package of joint working with government including a review of restrictions after 28 days, strengthening of test and trace capabilities and clear communication with the regions 2.3m residents.

If you would like to check what the latest rules for West Yorkshire are click here.