Government - not councils - should fund crisis-hit Welcome to Yorkshire, TUC claims

The TUC has said the Government should fully fund the contributions of regional councils to Welcome to Yorkshire, which has recently requested an emergency £1.4m bailout from local authorities and normally receives about half of its annual funding from the public sector.

At least three councils - Ryedale, Hambleton and East Riding - have refused the bailout request so far.

The TUC call comes as Welcome to Yorkshire confirmed today that a number of staff are being made redundant at the organisation.

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive James Mason said: “We can confirm we are going through a staffing review which has resulted in some staff being made redundant.”

The organisation said it would be “unfair” to reveal how many roles are to be made redundant at this stage as consultation with staff members is still ongoing.

Earlier this year, Mr Mason said one-third of WTY’s 34-strong workforce was being furloughed.

The TUC’s regional secretary, Bill Adams, said: “Local councils are spending hand over fist to fight the coronavirus pandemic, but government has pulled the funding rug out from under them.  

“The Prime Minister is expecting councils to roll out emergency public health measures and at the same time fund a tourism body for a region the size of Scotland or New Zealand.
“It is neither sensible nor fair. Council budgets need to be fully funded to support all their activities and their response to all aspects of the pandemic. Supporting jobs and businesses through this pandemic is essential to a better recovery that prioritises jobs and working people.”
The tourism industry in Yorkshire employs 250,000 workers and is worth £9bn to the region’s economy annually.

Mr Adams added: “We need a strong tourist board with a well-coordinated tourism recovery strategy to support the jobs and businesses depending on this sector.
“The TUC’s Better Recovery for Yorkshire plan shares the objective of Welcome to Yorkshire’s Reopen, recover, rebuild: recovery plan for the tourism sector, to support good, secure jobs for tourism across our region.
“Trade unions and Welcome to Yorkshire are working together to safeguard the future of jobs and businesses in the tourism sector. But without a strong tourism body, our efforts will be hamstrung.
“A quarter of a million people in Yorkshire are employed in tourism. If Government doesn’t step up to help councils support Welcome to Yorkshire, those jobs are put at unnecessary risk.”

Welcome to Yorkshire had already been struggling financially prior to the pandemic and took a £500,000 loan from North Yorkshire County Council last year to prevent it running out of money and being unable to pay staff.

The Government has been approached for comment.

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