The delivery of the West Yorkshire devolution deal, which will provide local control of more than £1.8 billion in funding for the region, has taken a significant step forward this week after the five West Yorkshire authorities, and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority have agreed to go ahead with a public consultation.
Meetings of the five West Yorkshire councils’ Cabinets and Executives and the Combined Authority this week all gave the go-ahead for the consultation to start on Monday 25 May.
Responses to the public consultation, which will be open for eight weeks until 19 July, will be considered by West Yorkshire councils and the Combined Authority in the summer before they are submitted to the Government as part of the parliamentary process to change the existing combined authority into a mayoral combined authority.
The West Yorkshire devolution deal, announced in the March 2020 Budget, and the biggest ever of its kind, brings more than £1.8 billion of investment for West Yorkshire into local control. This includes £38 million per year for 30 years with significant freedoms to spend on local priorities.
It will also see the creation of a directly-elected Mayor for West Yorkshire to be elected in May 2021.
People who live, work or spend time in West Yorkshire are all encouraged to take part in the consultation, which the Combined Authority has developed in partnership with leading research agency Ipsos-MORI and the Consultation Institute.
To ensure that the consultation is as accessible as possible while following guidelines to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, people will be able to respond to the consultation through an online survey, by telephone, email, or by sending a response in writing to a special freepost address.
Local councils and other partners will also be sharing the consultation with community groups and other local networks, and postal copies of the survey will be sent to a representative sample of households across the region.