Clegg gives backing to West Yorkshire devolution

TALKS continue over a new devolution deal for Leeds as Nick Clegg once again rules out introducing a metro mayor.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick C leggDeputy Prime Minister Nick C legg
Deputy Prime Minister Nick C legg

The deputy prime minister has said the long delayed package of new powers for the Leeds and surrounding authorities – first promised to coincide with December’s Autumn Statement – should be announced shortly.

Already Chancellor George Osborne has handed over a devolution package to Manchester worth more than £1bn, though the move came at the cost of city leaders accepting proposals for a new metro mayor to take charge of high-level decision making.

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Mr Clegg said the Government was “in active negotiations on a devolution deal” to give the Leeds area” more control over key policy levers, and we hope to make an announcement shortly.”

He was speaking after a call to block new mayors by Bradford MP David Ward, whose local authority would form part of the city region deal handed powers,

Mr Ward urged his Liberal Democrat party leader to “avoid having to have a metro mayor in the Yorkshire region”.

He added: “Greater devolution, which is very welcome, should not be at the cost of local people deciding the governance arrangements for the Yorkshire region.”

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Mr Clegg made clear his determination to prevent new mayoral systems being forced onto Yorkshire voters.

He told MPs: “On the governance arrangements, clearly we need improved, strengthened governance when we give an area more power. As he rightly suggested, however, this should be a bottom-up process; there should not be a one-size-fits-all blueprint imposed from above.

“So it is not the Government’s policy to say that every area that has a new devolution deal has to subscribe to a particular form of new governance, be it metro mayor or otherwise. That needs to be driven by each local area, and I suspect that they will arrive at different proposals, according to their needs.”