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26
Feb
Government awards 'game-changing' £380m for transport in North Yorkshire
The government has awarded £380 million of reallocated HS2 funding to improve transport in North Yorkshire.
The seven-year funding, from April 2025 to 2032, has been hailed by ministers as the “first fully devolved transport budget of its kind targeted at smaller cities, towns and rural areas”.
It will be spent on schemes such as new roads, filling in potholes, tackling congestion, increasing the number of EV chargepoints and improving public transport.
The new York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, which will be overseen by whoever is elected mayor on May 2, will decide how to spend it.
The £380 million awarded to North Yorkshire represents the lion’s share of an overall £950 million package to the Yorkshire and the Humber region announced today.
The Department for Transport said in a statement the deal was on average at least nine times more than local authorities received through the local integrated transport block, which is the current mechanism for funding local transport improvements in their areas.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the funds would “deliver a new era of transport connectivity” and help to level up the country.
He added:
'Truly game-changing'
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the investment would deliver an unprecedented long term funding uplift across the region over seven years.and give local authorities long-term certainty to invest in "transformative and ambitious transport improvements" from next year.
Mr Harper said:
The money is from the DfT’s Local Transport Fund, which compensates the north and Midlands for the decision to scrap the northern leg if the high speed rail route HS2. It is also specifically for communities in the north and Midlands outside city regions - who already receive City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements.
The South and West Yorkshire Combined Authorities already benefit from £1.4 billion of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements from 2022-2027.
Today's DfT statement said the investment "demonstrates our commitment to reinvest all of the £19.8 billion from the northern leg of HS2 in the north".
Lord Patrick McLoughlin, chair of Transport for the North, said:
Sums awarded
| Region | Upper Tier LA | Allocation |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority | £379,670,000 |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | £168,269,000 | |
| Kingston upon Hull, City of | £161,146,000 | |
| North Lincolnshire | £118,189,000 | |
| North East Lincolnshire | £119,726,000 | |
| TOTAL - YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER | £947,000,000 | |
* Numbers may not sum to totals due to rounding.
Read more:
- Skills and transport: What does the Harrogate district need from the new combined authority?
- Council pledges further action after ‘shocking’ repair of Knaresborough road
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