Job creation and skills at heart of ‘City Deal’

LEEDS and Sheffield city regions have been given new powers over billions of pounds of funding in a move which aims to create jobs, improve skills and accelerate infrastructure and transport works.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will visit both cities later today to outline the thinking behind the move, which sees a number of locations across the UK included in the initiative.

The five councils of West Yorkshire plus York, and the four councils of South Yorkshire are initiating separate moves that could ultimately see the creation of two combined authorities.

In the Sheffield City Region, councils will be given control of £72m of funding for skills and a transport fund – potentially worth £500m to the area – will be created.

Is is hoped that under the city deal, 4,000 new apprenticeships will be created across the Sheffield City Region and an additional 2,000 adults trained in new skills.

In the Leeds City Region, a £1bn fund will be put in place for investment in public transport and the highways network, with the potential to create 20,000 jobs. A further £400m fund will be available to modernise infrastructure across the city region. 

Skills are also high on the agenda, and an apprencticeship academy is to be created in Leeds, which will aim to give young people and employers access to opportunities and training.

There will also be the development of an ‘Apprenticeship Hub’ network in Bradford to encourage 7,500 new employers to take on apprentices, aiming to generate 15,000 new apprenticeships over the next four years.

Initiatives will also be create to increase overseas trade and inward investment activity.

City deals, first announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last year, involve the Government agreeing to hand over powers and funds previously dealt with in Whitehall to local authorities as part of efforts to kickstart the economy.

The Government is also set to agree a three-year investment plan with the Sheffield City Region’s Skills and Employment Partnership. 

This will enable a joint investment scheme with £44.4m of local public and private sector investment, £23.8m of Government funding and an additional £4m from Government.

Local powers will also be created to compel operators to participate in an integrated transport smart-card scheme and it will be created in the city region on a trial basis shortly.

Ultra-fast broadband access, first announced in this year’s Budget, will be rolled out in the Leeds City Region by 2015 with the aim of giving broadband access to 88,000 homes and more than 16,000 businesses.