Your Combined Authority Budget: 2021-22
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About us
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority brings together local councils and businesses to deliver projects and services to make lives better across West Yorkshire.
Our work covers the West Yorkshire local authority areas of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.
We also work in close partnership with our neighbouring local enterprise partnerships and our partner councils in Barnsley, Craven, Harrogate, Selby and York to ensure our work has the greatest possible benefits for the economy and the economic area known as Leeds City Region.
These short animations explain the work we do in the region and how we spend our budget on delivering improvements that everyone can benefit from:
Against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic we have made sure that our region continues to receive the vital investment that we need. We have also been working hard to secure more funding to help us to recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have supported the region by committing to investing over £20.5 million of local funds to support economic recovery in this financial year (April 2021 - April 2022). This includes £7 million in grant funding to support small businesses impacted by the pandemic and £13.5 million in employment and skills support jobseekers and support businesses to recruit.
We have also produced the West Yorkshire economic recovery plan which sets out our ask to Government for £1.4 billion of essential funding to support economic recovery over the next 5 years.
We are also investing:
- £330 million on transport and infrastructure projects
- £54 million on bus passes
- £26.5 million to support our Metro branded network
How we’ll spend our money in the future
This year we secured a devolution deal with Government worth £1.8 billion.
The deal will enable the five councils and the Mayoral Combined Authority to take more decisions locally on the issues that matter to people in West Yorkshire, and invest in the region’s economic recovery by supporting transport improvements, adult education, skills and jobs, infrastructure, housing and regeneration.
Devolution is already having an impact on access to funding and increased opportunities for the organisation. These have been sought and secured through:
- £317 million Transforming Cities Fund, the largest allocation to any region, to deliver transformational infrastructure schemes across West Yorkshire
- £67 million funding for new homes on Brownfield sites
- A seat at the national table on economic recovery
The devolution deal of both investment and decision making is crucial for us to fully realise our vision for West Yorkshire and meet our challenges. The Mayor and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority will be able to:
- Control a £38 million per year allocation of gainshare investment funding over 30 years, to drive growth and take forward our priorities
- Design a five-year integrated transport settlement starting in 2022/23, and agreement to explore West Yorkshire Mass Transit
- Gain new powers on transport, including easier access to bus franchising and a regional approach to control of a Key Route Network
- Control of Adult Education and the devolved Adult Education Budget to shape local skills provision to respond to local needs
- Control of £25 million Heritage Fund to support establishing of a potential ‘British Library North’
- Gain new joint powers on planning, focusing on zero carbon
- Manage £3.2 million to support development of a pipeline of housing sites across West Yorkshire
- Lead on transport infrastructure development and funding for the Bradford Station Masterplan and the Outline Business Case for Leeds Station redevelopment
- Manage the ongoing partnership with the Environment Agency on identifying and addressing flood risk management requirements with £101 million allocated for West Yorkshire flood risk management schemes
- Manage £200,000 fund for the Yorkshire Leaders Board
- Control the £75,000 for West Yorkshire Local Digital Skills Partnership
- Lead on piloting the new National Green Infrastructure Standards with Natural England and DEFRA
- Work toward the transfer of Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) functions to the new Mayor in 2021
- Work in partnership to explore an “Act Early” Health Institute
If you’d like to find out more about our work, please visit our website (External link)
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