Page Title - up to 70 Characters

This is a H2 page title, this is where you need to add a heading regarding the content below.

Write a short introduction to the statement which summarises it. E.g. The Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, has welcomed the commitment to levelling up in today’s Government White Paper, but expressed frustration that the plans do not go far enough to truly make a difference to the lives of people in our region.

The Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, said:

“It’s positive that the Government recognises the urgent need to level up across the nation but the money it promises is nowhere near enough. The long-term ambitions of the strategy are welcome, but we need to see action and delivery now, not just by 2030.

There’s lots of ambition, lots of hope, but Mayors and local leaders need enough funding, and the tools to do the job to improve the lives and livelihoods of people in our region."

The Mayor of West Yorkshire added:

"We have bold and ambitious plans for our bus services. We want a London style system with a comprehensive network, capped fares and a tap in, tap out system. But government Covid funding for buses ends next month, and without any extension, there will only be enough money to prop up existing services.

Bus operators in our region are already facing major pressures and being forced to withdraw routes in areas that government really want to level up, such as Wakefield.

We’re doing what we can as a Mayoral Combined Authority, stepping in to protect routes, but we need more support from Government."

If the statement is referring to an external report or webpage it is best practice to hyperlink to that page. You can link to the published report by writing a closing sentence where you highlight the name of the report and click insert link.

Or you can add a button call to action underneath the closing sentence by highlighting the word you want to make a button, clicking formats and selecting Button, and then centralising the button like the example below.

Read the IRP North Report