Budget: Millions invested in Yorkshire projects

The Chancellor committed £14 million towards the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre to be run by Sheffield Hallam University and sited on the proposed Olympic Legacy Park in the city.

The AWRC has been billed as the most advanced research centre into physical activity in the world.

Professor Philip Jones, the university’s vice-chancellor, said: “The AWRC will play a leading role in revolutionising sport, health-care, physical activity and leisure.

“This will cement Sheffield Hallam’s global reputation for putting the science into sport and physical activity, but the AWRC will also be an exceptional asset for Sheffield and the wider region in helping to attract new jobs and investment. ”

Mr Osborne also revealed two out of three new “incubators” to help technology businesses in the North get off the ground will be set up in Leeds and Sheffield.

The Sheffield incubator will be in the former Co-op department store in Castlegate while the Leeds facility will occupy the former police station close to Park Square.

The Government will invest just over £7 million in the two projects.

The Budget also included a commitment to fund a “financial technology incubator” in Leeds which promises to put the city at the forefront of technology-led changes in the financial services sector.

Sheffield will host one of five regional centres of a new £138 million research initiative looking at the resilience of infrastructure in UK cities.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will also be part of the £20 million ‘Connected Health Cities” initiative which will look at how data gathered from across the North can be used to shape health and social care services.