In the Autumn Statement announced on the 22nd of November, devolution proposals were given the go ahead for both Hull and East Yorkshire and Greater Lincolnshire. And the Levelling up Minister Jacob Young has now met with local leaders across the two areas to officially sign the proposals.
The plans would see an elected ‘economic’ mayor for both regions, bringing funding and capital investment in areas such as housing, job creation, and public transportation.
Deals are subject to an 8-week public consultations, and the FSB will also be keeping you posted of business engagement opportunities as part of the consultation process. Your local Development Manager for Hull, East Riding and the Humber (Paula Gouldthorpe), and Development Manager for Lincolnshire (Katrina Pierce) are attending regular engagement meetings with the authorities and will support the process to enable business engagement and consultation of FSB members.
Subject to consultation and agreed processes, the deal would then lead onto having an Elected Mayor, in 2025, become responsible for the Combined Authority, including how it will work and interact with businesses and residents. Mayors of combined authorities are often described as economic mayors (not like the town mayors we are used to seeing wearing civic regalia).
The local authorities will remain as they are, however through a Combined Mayoral Authority, it will provide an organisation that will focus upon empowering the local area, and that comes with additional powers and importantly long-term funding for key areas around inward investment, economic growth and transport.
The devolution deals will bring new decision-making powers so that decisions can be taken locally.
It will open the opportunity for accessing more funding, investment for place, infrastructure, and support business investment to help create more and better jobs. Bringing greater more capital investment to invest in transport and connectivity.
It will bring funds to support training and equipping of the local workforce with the skills that businesses need.
The deal is just the ‘first rung on the ladder’ and more devolution and powers can be negotiated in the future.
Find out more about the deal and a summary of what’s included through each of the respective areas:
And the full deal documents can be found via .gov.uk for Hull and East Riding and Greater Lincolnshire.