Issue - meetings

Considered -

A report by James Farrar, Chief Operating Officer, York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership regarding the Wider Devolution Programme Update.

James Farrar introduced the report and gave an overview of the key points, as summarised below:

·         The report provides an overview of the implementation of the commitments within the York and North Yorkshire Devolution Deal

·         The Mayoral Investment Fund is subject to a 5 year gateway check

·         The MCA will have a statutory responsibility for the adult education budget and work is underway to do what is required to enable funding to be drawn down

·         The Government has given provisional agreement to the extension of the York and Central Enterprise Zone

·         The Local Transport Plan is under development and national guidance is expected to be published imminently

·         A paper on the £7m Net Zero Fund is at agenda item 8

·         BioYorkshire was the big innovation ask for the region and a cross departmental working group and steering group are in place.

There followed a discussion with the key points as summarised below:

·         Good to see a mature partnership working across both councils

·         It is exciting to see what the future holds for York and North Yorkshire, particularly with regard to housing provision which is so important to attracting skilled workers into the area

·         The two councils are better together as they have a greater pull and weight when the populations are combined

·         There have been questions about how the funding is distributed between projects in the City of York and those in North Yorkshire.  Overall, there is a reasonable balance

·         It is important to note that economic growth and development is not limited to county or city boundaries and positive growth in York with benefit North Yorkshire and vice versa.

The voting members of the committee indicated their unanimous support for the report.

Resolved –

That the report be noted.