Newly elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, has pledged to “get the basics right” as the first mayor of the county.
The Labour Party candidate won the inaugural mayoral election with 66,761 votes.
Speaking after the result, Mr Skaith, who is originally from Harrogate, said he felt the region had not done the basics, such as building affordable homes and improving transport.
He added that doing so would help to retain people to live and work in the area.
Mr Skaith said:
“We have an opportunity to bring York and North Yorkshire together. North Yorkshire is not an area that we normally do well in, but people want change.
“We have not been doing the basics. That will be my priority. We have a lot of people who are leaving the area.”
Mr Skaith pledged to work with fellow metro mayors in West Yorkshire, but also towards the west in Greater Manchester and Liverpool to help improve issues such as transport.
The election was a disappointing day for the Conservatives in North Yorkshire as they lost the election by 14,794 votes.
Tory candidate, Keane Duncan, came second with 51,967 votes and Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, Liberal Democrat, finished third with 30,867.
Meanwhile, Green Party candidate, Kevin Foster, won 15,188 votes and Keith Tordoff, independent, finished fifth with 13,250 votes.
Harrogate independent, Paul Haslam, won 12,370 votes.
The turnout for the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election was 30%.
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