New North Yorkshire council “vital” to pave way for devolution to help funding crisis

The chance to make tens of millions of pounds in savings and bring new jobs, better transport links and affordable housing to hundreds of thousands of people is “vital” to help to counter the effects of the nation’s financial crisis, North Yorkshire County Council’s leader has claimed.

The “intense pressures” on the country’s finances has been compounded by the “soaring” rates of inflation and the aftershock of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the ongoing effects of the UK’s exit from the European Union.

However, a “massive overhaul” of local democracy in North Yorkshire is being heralded as an “essential stepping stone” to helping to tackle the growing demands on the public sector’s finances.

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council, Cllr Carl Les, stressed that wide-ranging changes to local government in the county are “vital” to pave the way for a devolution deal to transfer decision-making powers and millions of pounds of additional funding from the Government to a more local level.

However, it is estimated that the new authority, which comes into effect on April 1 next year, will start the next financial year with a £27m deficit from the county council and seven district and borough councils, and the “soaring” inflation nationally has added an additional £50m in costs.

But the move to the new North Yorkshire Council will mean that services can be streamlined and made more efficient, bringing savings totalling millions of pounds that will be used to finance key priorities and help cushion the monetary pressures brought about by the national situation.

Cllr Les, who will assume the leadership of the new North Yorkshire Council, commented: “We have embarked on reorganising local government in North Yorkshire as the county would miss out on the chance for devolution without it.

“Even before the current national financial situation emerged, it was deemed that keeping the status quo for councils in North Yorkshire was not sustainable for the future. The creation of a single council will bring about significant savings, but there will still be major financial challenges ahead.

“But if we do not secure the hugely important decision-making powers and the millions of pounds in additional new funding that would be available, it would mean there is a very real danger of York and North Yorkshire being left behind other areas which already have devolution.

“We want to bring a host of benefits to more than 600,000 people who live and work in North Yorkshire, such as new and better paid jobs, more affordable housing and better transport infrastructure.

“To do that, we need to create the new council to secure devolution. The reorganisation of local government will in itself create millions of pounds in savings which can be used to finance key council priorities in the future and help tackle the funding issues we face.”

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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