Deputy Director Adam Hawksbee writes for The Yorkshire Post on North Yorkshire and York’s new £540 million devolution deal. He writes:
“While the deal announced today will offer York and North Yorkshire many of the benefits that other devolved areas now have, it is likely to be very different in practice. This is the first devolution deal offered to a predominantly rural area so the issues the first mayor will grapple with will be different to those that matter to people in Manchester or Birmingham. Rural broadband and support for agriculture haven’t exactly been top of Andy Burnham’s list of priorities.
“There will also be a very different political dynamic in York and North Yorkshire. Unlike the Labour strongholds of West and South Yorkshire, the City of York is a Liberal Democrat-Green administration, while North Yorkshire is pretty solidly Conservative. It will be interesting to see how this dynamic plays out once a mayor is in post.”
You can read the full piece here.
