Why the Yorkshire devolution debate needs to be reopened - Yorkshire Post Letters

I read Stewart Arnold’s article (May 5) on ‘One Yorkshire’ devolution with considerable interest and I agree with much of the principle behind what he proposes.

For many years the Yorkshire Party has argued that Yorkshire possesses the population, identity, economic scale and historic coherence to function far more effectively as a single devolved region rather than through the fragmented structures we currently have.

Yorkshire is not a minor region of England. It is one of the largest economic and cultural areas in the United Kingdom and should be recognised as such. However, the wider issue is not simply constitutional reform. It is economic fairness.

Yorkshire remains one of the country’s largest contributors to the national economy outside London and the South East, yet we continually appear well down the list when it comes to meaningful investment being returned to the region. Across transport, infrastructure and regional development funding, Yorkshire people contribute heavily but too often receive disproportionately modest returns.

That imbalance is becoming increasingly difficult to defend. It has been reported that parts of the former East Germany, once regarded as economically weaker than Yorkshire, now outperform Yorkshire in GDP terms after decades of sustained strategic investment and regional empowerment.

Meanwhile Yorkshire — with its ports, manufacturing base, energy sector, universities, agriculture and industrial heritage — still struggles to secure the level of backing its economic contribution deserves.

This is not because Yorkshire lacks talent, ambition or capability. It reflects decades of uneven national investment priorities. Over recent decades we have witnessed dramatic increases in GDP per capita in some parts of the UK while many northern regions continue to wait for promised infrastructure and long-term economic renewal. Yorkshire has too often been expected to “make do” with piecemeal arrangements while others move ahead.

That is why the ‘One Yorkshire’ debate remains important. A unified Yorkshire settlement would allow the county to speak with one coherent voice on transport, inward investment, economic planning, housing and skills instead of operating through smaller competing authorities with limited influence.

But devolution must mean more than simply transferring responsibility without the financial tools necessary to succeed. Yorkshire is not asking for special treatment. It is asking for fair treatment and a fair return for the contribution it already makes to the national economy.

Stewart Arnold is right to reopen this discussion. The question now is whether Westminster is finally prepared to recognise Yorkshire as a major economic region deserving equal confidence, equal opportunity and equal investment.