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26
Sept
What money does North Yorkshire’s combined authority have to spend?
It’s been seven months since the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority was launched.
Tucked away in a room in the Guildhall in York at the start of February, James Farrar, chief executive of the authority, told an audience that the county had joined “the Premier League for ambition” with £540 million worth of funding over 30 years.
Since then, combined authority officials along with Labour mayor, David Skaith, have been working to allocate money to projects and strategies.
But how much funding is available to the organisation and what is it being spent on?
The Stray Ferret has analysed the combined authority’s reports and announcements to find out where the money is going.
Mayor’s budget
Much like any organisation, the combined authority and mayor have a budget for the year.
In March, the authority agreed its financial plan for 2024/25 which included the mayoral investment fund and a tranche of funding agreed as part of its devolution deal.
The deal agreed with ministers two years ago included £540 million worth of investment over three decades, plus additional grants from government on housing, skills and transport.
This means that the mayoral investment fund, which is used to target the mayor’s priorities in the region, stands at £18 million this year.
Since his election in May, Mr Skaith has allocated funding towards projects which he sees as a priority.
Funding for the combined authority, as agreed in its budget in March. Picture: York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.
For instance, the Labour mayor has spoken at length about his high street fund — which will cost £10 million over his four-year term in office.
As Mr Skaith explained to businesses in Harrogate, the fund is designed to help businesses thrive. He said:
Our high streets are a place that have been forgotten and left behind. There’s constant talk about high streets dying. High streets are not dying, they’re just changing and we need to change with that.
As well as his high street fund, a further £10 million was allocated over four years to net zero projects, £5 million towards supporting business innovation and £2.5 million to improving skills in the region.
These are all priorities that have been set by Mr Skaith as part of his term in office.
Housing and transport
There are other funding pots which are specifically for areas which the combined authority can tackle.
One of those is housing on brownfield land, which has an earmarked £12.7 million fund from government.
So far, the combined authority has allocated £9 million from the fund towards 700 homes — of which 252 will be affordable — across nine new developments in the region.
In September, Mr Skaith allocated an additional £3.36 million from his investment fund towards three affordable housing projects in York and Craven.
The move means the combined authority has now allocated £16 million to spend on housing alone.
David Skaith, mayor of York and North Yorkshire.
Another area which falls under the remit of the combined authority is transport.
In the devolution deal agreed in 2022, powers such as local transport strategies and bus franchising were devolved to the authority.
Mr Farrar told businesses in Harrogate that a transport funding settlement of £380 million was allocated to the authority this year.
However, the announcement was made under the previous Conservative government in February and has yet to be confirmed.
Mr Farrar said:
We are just waiting for that to be confirmed hopefully in the autumn statement. But, we are busy planning for what that might look like.
The mayor will be able to allocate the funding to schemes designed to improve transport in the region, such as connecting rural areas into towns and cities.
However, Mr Skaith told businesses that while the money will be welcomed, it is a small amount in the grand scheme of things.
Getting the £380m in funding can really go a long way. I know that’s a lot of money, but when you’re talking about transport £380m isn’t that much money, which is ridiculous.
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