Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Yorkshire!

Today is Yorkshire Day, a celebration of all the things that make Yorkshire a great place, and also a day to reflect on the opportunities and challenges facing the county.

The scale and potential of Yorkshire is substantial: a population of 5.5 million (larger than that of Scotland or Norway), annual economic output of ￡142bn (almost double that of Wales), home to three national parks, winner of more medals at London 2012 than Australia etc etc (I could go on). Yorkshire has huge economic assets and potential, with genuine strengths in its universities, advanced manufacturing, green industries, financial and professional services, digital and creative, and bio and agritech sectors. There is a palpable sense of ambition, confidence and vibrancy in Yorkshire that was not as prominent when I first moved here eighteen years ago. A combination of stronger and more enlightened institutions, resurgent towns and cities, switched-on political leadership, real innovation at community level, and a business community that is younger, more diverse and dynamic than it perhaps was in the past is making a real difference.

But with 24% of people in Yorkshire living below the poverty line, average life expectancy and per capita economic output way below the national averages the problems and challenges cannot be ignored. Despite the rhetoric of national politicians around “The Northern Powerhouse” or “Levelling Up” Yorkshire has not gained the powers and resources it needs to fulfill its potential.

I think Yorkshire is fantastic, but there is so much more that it can achieve. Here are my five calls to action.

A step-change in transport investment – HS2 East has been at best mothballed, Leeds remains the largest city in Western Europe without a mass transit system, Bradford (population over 0.5 million) remains the UK’s largest city not on a fast inter-urban rail route (its new station and inclusion as part of the NPR network was off, then on, then off, and now it's on again). Leeds and Sheffield, Yorkshire’s two largest cities, are connected by a crowded, uncomfortable hourly “fast” rail service that takes 42 minutes to travel around 30 miles. As I have found in recent days car journeys are beset by congestion, slow traffic, and unsuitable infrastructure. Politicians in Whitehall stymied the local decision of Leeds City Council to approve a much need replacement terminal for Leeds Bradford Airport. All of this means people cannot move jobs without moving house, they struggle to get to work, and businesses struggle access workers and markets. Meanwhile a new cross-city rail link that has brought an additional 1.5 million people within 45 minutes additional travel time of central London.

Backing innovators and entrepreneurs – we have great universities in Yorkshire which are really leaning into the agenda of commercialising their research, spinning out and spinning in companies, and anchoring innovation districts. Initiatives such as Investment Zones are really positive. But in the UK, not only do we underinvest in R&D, this investment is hugely unbalanced. Over half of?our current R&D spend is concentrated in?the South East corner of the nation.?Only 5% is in Yorkshire. For far too long we have spent half our science budget in the London-Oxford-Cambridge “Golden Triangle” despite the fact that business spend on research is more balanced across the nation. Our film and TV and creative sector has made huge progress, thanks to the work of organisations like Screen Yorkshire and the backing of Mayors and city leaders, but there is so much more we can do to build from this base and attract inward investment from global players.

Reshaping and growing our cities, towns and suburbs. The traditional imagery of drystone walls, heather-clad moors, sheep, cute villages, and cricket on the green might be great for selling Yorkshire Tea or promoting rural tourism, but it does not reflect the modern economy where the success of cities, towns, and suburbs are so important. Conversely, while city centres are important, simply concentrating and densification of growth and development in them (Centre for Cities think Leeds needs to be as dense as Marseille ) is not the only answer either. Yorkshire is different to other metropolitan areas in that its economic and settlement structure is polycentric, and there is an economic history and contemporary reality from textiles to today’s business parks and commuting patterns that links its cities, suburbs, towns and countryside. I don’t often agree with Simon Jenkins, but he does eloquently describe economic geography: “Manchester is a dominant hub with satellite towns.?Yorkshire is s more like Renaissance Italy (with town halls to match): a patchwork of rival statelets, proudly discordant.” If we are serious about economic growth, not only do we need to regenerate and build more commercial space in Yorkshire’s city centres as well as more green space, we need to build new suburbs, and more homes and business space on the edges of our towns and cities too. And we need to link our assets and strengths across different parts of Yorkshire (Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Hull are all very close compared to competing regions globally).

Responding to climate change is a big challenge as well as an opportunity for Yorkshire. The Humber alone is responsible for 37% of the UK’s industrial, process, and energy generation carbon emissions. Yorkshire is well placed to pioneer and harness the revolution in hydrogen, off-shore wind, carbon capture and storage, and bio-fuels. More stability in policy, regulation and government investment is needed here too. Our ageing and drafty housing stock needs retrofit at scale. Whether it is big moorland fires or major floods, recent years have demonstrated that the county is also vulnerable to extreme weather, and the need for investment in resilience. New approaches to land management provide an opportunity to respond to agendas such as biodiversity, natural flood management, water quality, carbon off-setting and sequestration, and well-being in an integrated way.

Finally we need more devolution. The UK has the most centralised system of Government in Western Europe (other than perhaps Albania). Councils need to go cap-in-hand to Whitehall for approval to pedestrianise a small street. Elected leaders in Yorkshire cannot raise taxes, or bonds to pay for infrastructure. Local Government has born the brunt of austerity more so than any other part of the public sector. Brian Groom, author of the best selling Northerners, made reference on Yorkshire Day to William the Conqueror’s brutal harrying of the north; it could be argued that our system of Government stems from that imposed by William I to subjugate the north. It is time to empower local leaders and institutions to make decisions and investments to realise Yorkshire’s huge potential.?