The Yorkshire Devolution Debate - “One Yorkshire or nothing”

17 Yorkshire Local Authorities agreed in principle to the idea of a single Yorkshire deal – One Yorkshire - with one region-wide elected mayor. This new devolution scenario is being billed as the ‘coalition of the willing’.

Ministers behind the scenes are in flux about the proposal. Initially against the idea, then murmurs of support came from Chancellor Philip Hammond, and now Local Government Secretary, Sajid Javid has slammed down the One Yorkshire deal in a letter to Yorkshire Council Leaders and MPs.

Javid has been branded a bully on the back of the letter as his intervention came ahead of a meeting to decide the future of the Sheffield City Region devolution deal. At the core of the letter was Javid’s unwillingness to see beyond a Sheffield deal, he said: “[we] will not consider any proposal for a Yorkshire wide deal that involved one or more of the four South Yorkshire councils”.

This was a political game of chicken. Who would flinch first? The government might have expected Barnsley and Doncaster Council to throw in the towel and remove themselves from the One Yorkshire deal – especially as ￡30m annually for the next 30 years was on the table – however, they held firm and now the martyrdom has begun.

One Yorkshire explained

Firstly, to put this into context, a Yorkshire Mayor would have a direct democratic mandate from an electorate of over five million, the second largest personal democratic mandate of any UK politician. This is an opportunity to combine the Yorkshire brand with the economic focus of city and rural sub-regions. 

If implemented, the current structure looks to be a directly elected Yorkshire Mayor with a Cabinet made up of a Yorkshire Combined Authority with Combined Authority Committees linked to the existing LEP footprints.

The Javid issue

The question is would One Yorkshire devolution deliver on the Government’s devolution conditions, which is:

1.      Directly elected mayor with a single combined authority; and

2.      A geography that has the potential to command the support of wider stakeholders

Javid says no.

What about Sheffield City Region?

Sympathy must be given to Sheffield City Region. A mayor for the Sheffield City Region was due to be elected this May but the public vote was postponed following a successful legal challenge by Derbyshire County Council, which claimed people in Chesterfield had not been properly consulted. They had then hoped that the election would take place May 2018 and until the start of the year, it looked to still be the case. However, Jon Trickett MP made the case for a Yorkshire-wide deal and Sheffield Council successfully lobbied for a city centre location for HS2. On the Yorkshire deal, Trickett said that although he believes the City Regions are important as drivers of economic growth they are not the whole picture. “I believe in One Yorkshire", he said at the time. This was the start of the end for a Sheffield City Region devolution deal.

Rotherham Borough Council leader Cllr Chris Read, who alongside Sheffield City Council leader Cllr Julie Dore were championing the Sheffield devolution deal, has come out and said: “failure to reach agreement to progress with consultation on devolution to the city region is just the latest failure of councils across our region to grasp the funding and opportunities already enjoyed by other parts of the country.” “Two years after signing the agreement in good faith, our inability to make progress in South Yorkshire will almost inevitably mean fewer resources to bring more jobs to our local economy.”

So what now?

Following the collapse of the Sheffield City Region devolution deal, Ministers are now working to avoid a ￡1m election for a powerless Sheffield City Region mayor. The legislation is already in place for an election next May; however, the mayor will be with few powers and without ￡30m a year.

If the election goes ahead the Government are in danger of looking petty and unwilling to cooperate. Some might say their unwillingness comes from a fear of being locked out of political decision-making throughout Yorkshire. It is highly likely that a One Yorkshire mayoral election would be won by a Labour candidate when South Yorkshire is included within the mix.

It is no wonder then that Harrogate Council and North Yorkshire County Council have now removed themselves from the 17 strong coalition of the willing. Both Conservative held councils. This means if Doncaster and Barnsley refuse to remove themselves from the One Yorkshire deal and re-join the Sheffield City Region deal then One Yorkshire could be no more.

As a result, Labour MPs have now begun to more vehemently oppose any such talk of One Yorkshire not going ahead. Dan Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central has come out with a reasoned request: “These critical decisions that impact upon us in Yorkshire, should be made in Yorkshire. My message to Chris Grayling, Sajid Javid and their Cabinet colleagues in government is this: we will work with you, but give us the resources and we will do it better.” At today’s West Yorkshire Economic Growth Conference in Leeds, John Grogan MP put down the gauntlet and said it’ll be “One Yorkshire or nothing”. 

With an End of Day Adjournment Debate being called in Parliament by Grogan for Tuesday 10 October, this is something that will continue to be drawn out. In this political game of chicken, it will be interesting to see if the nerves of the coalition of the willing remain strong.