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25
Jun
Harrogate district misses out on mayor's new £10m regeneration fund
The Harrogate district has missed out on a share of £10 million regeneration funding after being left out of a new initiative to create three Mayoral Development Zones.
Proposals for the zones, which are intended to boost jobs, housing and economic development, will be considered at a meeting of York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority cabinet next week.
A report published ahead of Thursday's meeting identifies Scarborough, Selby and York as the three places earmarked for MDZs, which will be in line for a slice of York and North Yorkshire mayor David Skaith's new MDZ regeneration fund.
MDZs are designed to allow the Labour mayor to bring together developers, landowners and the local authority to attract private-sector investment and align it with public-sector funding.
The locations for the three proposed MDZs were identified with the help of with City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council using several criteria, including geographical significance, the volume of opportunities for housing and commercial development, and the levels of deprivation.
The report noted:
North Yorkshire Council have also flagged the emerging opportunities at Harrogate as being an area of priority, although not yet as advanced as Scarborough.
According to the 2025 Indices of Multiple Deprivation, Scarborough has the highest levels of deprivation in the region, with 19 Lower Super Output Areas classified within the 20% most deprived areas within England. York has eight, Selby has two, and Harrogate has just one.
Announcing the creation of the new zones, Mr Skaith said:
This is about using the full powers available to the mayor through devolution to making a real difference to people’s everyday lives; good jobs, affordable homes, and thriving communities.
The three areas that will become MDZs have the ability to deliver thousands of new homes, unlock thousands of new and better jobs, and attract billions of pounds of investment into our region.
Some of the sites are ready to go and just need that final push, others need the final pieces of investment to get them going. Each MDZ will tailored to get development going and delivered quicker.
'Harrogate has waited long enough'
But Martin Mann, chief executive of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, questioned both the motivation behind the mayor's choice of MDZ locations and the scheme's focus exclusively on urban areas.
Martin Mann, chief executive of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce.
He told the Stray Ferret:
The Chamber welcomes investment in regeneration across York and North Yorkshire, and we wish the communities of Scarborough, Selby and York Central well. But we do have questions about how these three locations were selected.
The report states that zones were chosen based on geographical significance, development opportunity and levels of deprivation. It is hard to avoid noticing that all three sit in areas with a particular political complexion, while Harrogate, which North Yorkshire Council itself has identified as an emerging priority, is told to wait.
We would also question whether a purely urban model is right for a region as rural as North Yorkshire. A Rural Investment Zone, focused on smaller towns, agricultural communities and rural businesses, could deliver real benefit across a much wider area and would signal that devolution is working for everyone, not just the larger population centres.
Harrogate has waited long enough. We expect the Combined Authority to be ready for us.
The creation of the £10m Mayoral Development Zone Regeneration Fund will be funded from £5 million of the combined authority's mayoral investment funding and £5m from its local growth fund.
A further £500,000 from the local growth fund will be spent on administration and consultants.
The MDZs and their funding will be discussed at a York and North Yorkshire combined authority cabinet meeting on Thursday, July 2.
The meeting will be broadcast here.
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