Yorkshire leaders state cases amid post-election scramble

Councils and combined authorities alike have been setting out their stall as Sir Keir Starmer’s top team prepare for the state opening of Parliament this week.

Unsurprisingly, social housing, skills and transport have been particularly prominent issues as regional leaders make their respective cases to a new Labour government.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves last week convened a meeting with Tracy Brabin, Oliver Coppard and David Skaith – the metro mayors of West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and York & North Yorkshire respectively.

Reeves said: “Economic growth is a national mission and my top priority. To achieve it we must fix the foundations of the economy and reset our relationship with local leaders.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has talked of putting more power in the hands of local leaders with “skin in the game”, a goal that is expected to be formalised in the King’s Speech to pen Parliament on Wednesday this week.

Brabin said: “We’re already cracking on with our local growth plan and today’s discussion was a helpful chance to ensure we maximise West Yorkshire’s contribution to growing the UK economy.

“With greater freedoms and flexibilities over devolved funding and a more formal relationship with the heart of government, we will help deliver the change our country so desperately needs.”

West Yorkshire has this week launched consultation on a tram system the Leeds area has been teased with for more than two decades.

Skaith, elected as York & North Yorkshire’s first Mayor in May, said: “In York and North Yorkshire, we urgently need more affordable homes and to unlock the potential for growth in our green economy that creates new, higher paid jobs.

“These are two key areas for our developing economic plans. The prospect of deeper devolution is exciting and will help us all to reach our full potential.”

Local authorities are banging the drum too.

A joint letter from the largest council landlords in England, including Sheffield, was last week submitted to government calling for urgent action on social housing.

With a full report due to be issued later this year, the group of 20 councils is joined by the National Housing Federation, the Chartered Institute for Housing, the Association of Retained Council Housing and the National Federation of Almos (arms-length management organisations).

The councils, led by Southwark, have been working together since March and are keen for Secretary of State Angela Rayner, herself famously raised in council housing, to prioritise the issue.

Cllr Tom Hunt, Leader of Sheffield City Council, said: “Council housing has a vital role to play in helping to solve the wider housing crisis in the United Kingdom.

“Sheffield City Council is working hard to provide more social housing and improve our existing homes. We look forward to working with government to ensure council housing has a strong future so that more people have a safe, secure, and affordable home.

“Our aim, as always, remains to provide more choice of good quality and affordable homes for residents. This also helps create local jobs and training opportunities as part of the Council’s procurement arrangements.”

York, too, is ramping up its efforts on social housing.

City of York Council, which owns 7,400 homes, said its plans include selling outdated or unsuitable property or land, and investing capital raised in building up its social housing stock. The city has started down the road of a 600-home housing delivery programme.

York has built 56 council homes and bought 108 in the last few years, and is progressing 140 Passivhaus homes across two sites. Further development is lined up at Castle Green, Lowfield Green in Acomb and the former Morrell house in Clifton.

Labour’s early days in government have seen it ditch the “Levelling Up” name from the ministry covering housing and local government, and set in motion plans to overhaul the National Planning Policy Framework.

The industry will be watching closely for hints in the King’s Speech of any further specific policy direction, or the type of mechanism Labour will use to support regeneration and housing.

Sheffield City Council chief executive Kate Josephs told Place Yorkshire in June that the city hopes for an end to the “constant pitching” for small amounts of money that typified recent Conservative governments, where streams such as the Levelling Up Fund, Towns Fund, Future High Streets Fund and brownfield housing support all had to be pursued separately in a range of time-intensive processes.