The Labour Government needs a New Year’s resolution for Yorkshire having underwhelmed so far - Andrew Vine

Whatever the New Year holds for Yorkshire, we have every right to expect the government to give us much more support to build a better future as part of a comprehensive package for the north.

Let’s hope Sir Keir Starmer and his senior colleagues have a set of New Year’s resolutions to do better by a massive region of Britain that is home to getting on for a quarter of our nation’s population, because their actions have so far been underwhelming.

The need for that to happen is as urgent as it ever was under the Conservatives, who gave us years of promises but no real help. To retain the support of the north, which did so much to put Labour into government, it must address a range of issues, including business concerns, agriculture, social care and transport.

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This year is ending with two successive months of economic shrinkage and as we know to our cost, downturns impact the north far more seriously than the more affluent south, which has a greater degree of resilience.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer rehearses his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference. PIC: Stefan Rousseau/PA WirePrime Minister Keir Starmer rehearses his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference. PIC: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Prime Minister Keir Starmer rehearses his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference. PIC: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

The term ‘levelling up’ has been binned, but a rebalancing of the economy remains key to our future.

The promise of change made by Labour last summer will ring very hollow if 2025 is yet another year of too little investment in the north and Yorkshire’s young people facing worse prospects of building rewarding careers than their counterparts only a couple of hours’ drive down the M1.

Nobody can realistically expect a major overhaul of the economy within six months of a government taking power, but what is concerning is that as the year turns, there is still no plan to close the north-south divide.

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Certainly, there is greater support for elected mayors, which is welcome, and the benefits Yorkshire derives from devolved powers will receive a further boost in May when Hull and East Yorkshire votes its first mayor into office.

But for all the positive impact mayors can make – and those in West, South and North Yorkshire are already making – they cannot bring about profound national policy change that gets more investment flowing towards the north.

Only the government can do that, and making it happen should be at the top of its list of resolutions. If it wants economic growth, which is its principal aim, that cannot be achieved without this massive area of the country firing on all cylinders.

Yet as it stands on the brink of its first full year, the government is not helping the north’s progress anything like vigorously enough.

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Two of its measures even hold out the prospect of us being worse off in the coming 12 months than we were before.

The impact of the national insurance hike for employers in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first budget has yet to be fully felt, but businesses remain consistent in their assertion that it will deter them from hiring new staff and growing.

Equally concerning is the farm tax, which will undoubtedly damage agriculture by driving farming families out of business.

Likely big rises in council tax in the spring will make life even more difficult for many, and despite them local authorities edge ever closer to bankruptcy as social care costs drain their resources.

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There is still no real indication of how the government intends to tackle the care crisis, and that too should be at the top of its 2025 to-do list. It cannot cure the ills of the NHS without transforming how care is delivered and putting it on a much sounder financial footing because the two services are inextricably linked.

Transport remains one of the north’s biggest problems. The government is putting great emphasis on the benefits of bringing rail franchises back into public ownership, but there is little evidence that nationalisation has done much to improve two of our region’s three principal operators, Northern and TransPennine Express.

The performance of both remains woeful and from spring passengers are going to be paying higher fares for services which are still unacceptably unreliable.

Work is finally under way to improve trans-Pennine links, but that won’t soothe the travelling public’s frustration if trains still don’t run because too few drivers are volunteering for overtime.

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As 2024 draws to its close, the government falls back on blaming the Conservatives for the problems it faces.

However much justification there is in that argument, the north will soon tire of hearing it trotted out as an excuse. The last government is receding rapidly into history and the New Year is a moment to look forward, not back.

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