North Yorkshire mayor David Skaith on course for greater devolution powers and spending controls, says Government minister Jim McMahon
North Yorkshire mayor David Skaith is on course to be given greater devolution powers and control over spending, a Government minister has told The Yorkshire Post.
Local Government and English Devolution Minister Jim McMahon said Mr Skaith’s mayoral authority is on the right path to following South and West Yorkshire mayors Oliver Coppard and Tracy Brabin in being granted simplified additional powers over how they spend money in their regions.
The Government has already introduced so-called ‘integrated settlements’ for Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and West Midlands mayor Richard Parker, with their organisations given a single flexible pot of funding to spend instead of relying on multiple funding streams for different activites. In the case of Greater Manchester it has received a £630m funding settlement for the current financial year, with the West Midlands getting £389m.
South and West Yorkshire are due to receive their own integrated settlements from next April, with the mayors of Liverpool and the North East also getting them.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post at the UKREiiF real estate conference in Leeds, Mr McMahon said it is intended that every mayoralty will eventually receive an integrated settlement. He added that York and North Yorkshire is making good progress towards that after Mr Skaith became the region’s first mayor in May 2024.
He said the Government has put in place a clear structure for mayoral combined authorities to receive integrated settlements.
"For an existing combined authority, if they’ve been in place for 18 months and haven’t got any outstanding issues in terms of their finances, they are eligible to be considered for an integrated settlement. It is a very simple gateway process where we do a financial assessment to make sure they’ve got the right systems in place and that’s it,” he said.
"What that does is unlock further powers. For Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, it is £1bn, for the four that will come the year after it will easily be a couple of billion.”
Asked whether initial conversations have started with North Yorkshire as it approaches its first 18 months in existence, Mr McMahon said: “Those with mayors already in place are at the front of the queue, aren’t they? North Yorkshire has established itself really well, we haven’t got any concerns about its finances or its governance and so on.
"It is clearly in a good place. There’s a process now of that gateway review that South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire are going through at the moment ahead of April and then basically we tie it into the financial year.
"They are in a very good place.”
Mr McMahon said it was possible a deal could be in place by April 2026 or April 2027, Mr McMahon said: “You are probably safer to say it would be one or the other. It slightly depends on the process and the gateway.
"We can’t pre-empt that because it is a process of assessment other than to say David has placed that combined authority in an excellent position.”