YP Comment: Energy policy and the winds of change on the Humber

Even though the Danish energy giant says it is committed to the region, and still intends to invest £6bn in green energy by 2019, the region deserves reassurances about the company’s future intentions and, just as crucially, the extent to which Theresa May’s government will support offshore wind power in the year ahead.

For years, Hull, East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire have staked their future prospects on this green revolution – it has the potential to turn the economic tide – but there are signs, four weeks into Mrs May’s premiership, that energy policy is in a state of considerable flux. Already the proposed nuclear plant at Hinkley Point has been put on hold while Ministers look to increase compensation levels to residents in areas, like Ryedale, where industrial-scale fracking might occur.

In view of the need for clarity following the recent ebb and flow in energy policy, and also the Government’s wider commitment to these parts as the Northern Powerhouse concept is watered down, it is perhaps fortunate that one of the key ministers, Andrew Percy, represents Brigg and Goole – a constituency which has much to gain from offshore wind.

Now the Northern Powerhouse Minister, Mr Percy’s response to this test of mettle will indicate whether Whitehall’s winds of change will be in Yorkshire’s favour – or not.

Mayor manoeuvre: Burnham exposes Yorkshire void

LIKE him or loathe him, the selection of Andy Burnham as Labour’s candidate for the inaugural Greater Manchester mayoral election will, in all probability, deprive Jeremy Corbyn of another big-hitter from the Opposition front bench. Even though the Shadow Home Secretary’s scare-mongering over the NHS, and more recently crime, often smacked of opportunism, Ministers should be held to account.

Yet the move of the ambitious Mr Burnham, twice a badly defeated leadership candidate, can also be interpreted in one of two ways. Some will say it is symptomatic of growing disillusionment with Mr Corbyn as Labour continues to lurch to the political left under an unelectable and ineffectual leader who is beginning to look unassailable because of the changing composition of the party’s membership. Others, however, will contend that regional mayors have the potential to hold more power than most Cabinet ministers.

However these developments do expose the inability of leaders in West, North and East Yorkshire to settle their devolution differences. For, while Greater Manchester is racing ahead and getting on with the job of electing a mayor to spearhead its economic agenda, the deadlock on this side of the Pennines (with the notable exception of Sheffield city-region which is also going down the mayoral route next May) threatens to hold this county back at a critical time when this region needs to be pulling in the same direction and maximising the priceless ‘Yorkshire’ brand.

Barnsley net £9m: John Stones and a whole new ball game

TALK about shrewd business. Even though supporters of Barnsley FC have still to see a home-grown player as good as Tommy Taylor, the star striker killed in the 1958 Munich disaster, the £47.5m transfer of John Stones from Everton to moneybags Manchester City will come to represent the biggest windfall in the Oakwell club’s proud history.

As a result of Barnsley discovering the young Stones in the town, nurturing the callow player and then inserting the necessary transfer clauses into the relevant contracts when the defender left for Merseyside en route to becoming Yorkshire’s most expensive ever footballer, the club’s profit on this local lad will now be £9m plus.

To many followers of football, transfer prices are now obscene – the Stones deal came hours after Manchester United spent nearly £100m re-signing former player Paul Pogba. To clubs like Barnsley, such windfalls are priceless – further reason for a supplementary transfer tax being imposed on future £1m-plus deals so more money can be pumped back into youth development and the discovery of youngsters with the world at their feet. After all, the Premier League clubs appear to have limitless funds for agents’ fees and so on.