Devolution opens up potential for new public transport links between Sheffield and Derbyshire, Turner & Townsend roundtable is told

The potential to run a tram-trains service on disused railway lines was one of the topics discussed at a roundtable event hosted by The Yorkshire Post and Turner & Townsend in Leeds, which focused on the strategies needed to ensure Yorkshire has world class infrastructure and governance in 2030.

Kate Josephs, the CEO of Sheffield City Council, told the event that devolution could provide local people with the capacity to work together to make a difference to their community.

She highlighted the challenges of public sector finances though, adding: "Some of the best examples of public sector investment have carried risks."

She said in the current climate it was much harder for local authorities to take even measured risks at a time when public finances are under pressure.

She said local authorities must show leadership and work with partners to tackle the climate emergency; partnership with the private sector was absolutely critical.

Ms Josephs highlighted how, for example, local councils needed to navigate complexity and uncertainty in these areas given frequent changes in national policy and multiple different funding pots on areas such as energy policy and housing retrofit.

She had lost count of the number of different funding pots which had been made available for energy initiatives from central Government.

She stressed that local authorities must look at best practice being implemented by their neighbours and be willing to adapt it to serve their own community.

"We need to be brave, curious and always seek to learn from each other. We must not fall into the trap of believing we are constantly in competition with each other. We need to move away from the mindset of believing that 'nobody knows us better than we know ourselves'.

"Our heritage here in Yorkshire is hugely important but we must not be constrained by what’s gone before." She highlighted the success of a new public park in the heart of the city of Sheffield, Pound’s Park, which had previously been a car park. "When it comes to having a sense of 'place' we must be dreaming about the next iteration."

Coun Tom Hunt, the leader of Sheffield City Council, said: "Devolution has brought the convening power of the South Yorkshire mayoral combined authority.

"Our voices are stronger together. We spoke with one voice to highlight the strengths of our advanced manufacturing sector, along with our medtech and health and wellbeing sector, and the Government heard us and backed us with the UK’s first investment zone.

"In terms of infrastructure, devolution has allowed us to have conversations about the potential to run tram-trains on disused railway lines.

"There is the potential for new public transport connections between Sheffield and Derbyshire.

"We are developing an ambitious vision for an expanded tram network. We plan to create 36,000 new homes, with 20,000 of these being around the central core of the city.

"We have a mass transit system but we need to expand it. We hope to build on the great work that has been done in greater Manchester and take our buses back into public control so the bus network operates in the best interests of passengers.

"We also have to be bold and curious and break out of silos in order to make devolution work."

Duncan Thomas, an associate at HLM Architects, said devolution could improve economic equality by supporting the creation of homes, providing sustainable public transport, community infrastructure, green infrastructure and public space.

"In terms of tackling long term sickness, providing good homes is at the top of the list. People can't have good health without good housing."

"During Covid some bus routes were lost and have never been re-instated. It should be really easy to connect major transport nodes. It's hard to create a world class research facility if it's not served by a world class public transport system."

Richard Bell, the sales and business development director at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: "A critical area for us is investing in skills, with almost 10 per cent of our workforce in apprenticeship training at any point in time. We have 600 staff and need to replace more than half of them due to retirement and natural attrition over the next decade.

"In terms of devolution, what we really need from local government is action to try and resolve skills shortages and diversify the talent pool.

“Businesses need certainty; certainty about policies will give us the confidence to recruit and train more staff. For example, we would like to supply the UK’s Small Modular Reactor energy plants, but to be successful we need local government leaders to help develop a regional supply chain around us, generating skilled employment.

“We have great relationships with local organisations like the AMRC and NAMRC and we engage with local communities, particularly schools and colleges, to tell them about our work and the opportunities there are in the manufacturing sector. We aim to recruit from the most diverse talent pool possible and upskill our workforce at the same time.

"Sheffield could certainly benefit from a broadening of its public transport links to help employees get to work and the region benefits from fantastic green spaces in the Peak District, which can be a key draw for talent if the access is there.”

This is the second in a series of articles about the roundtable, which was held at the Queens Hotel in Leeds, and chaired by Greg Wright, the deputy business editor of The Yorkshire Post.