£380 million additional transport funding for York and North Yorkshire
28 February 2024
On Monday (26), the Government announced a £4.7 billion Local Transport Fund, from which York and North Yorkshire were allocated a £380 million settlement. Funding, allocated by a formula that considers population size and an assessment of levelling-up need, will bring an additional £50 million+ per year for the next seven years to support local transport schemes.
Decision making on the funds, which have been reallocated from the Government’s cancelled HS2 project, will transfer from Westminster to local leaders. The York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, which was officially formed and launched earlier this year as the result of a devolution deal, will manage the fund, led by an elected mayor. Working alongside local authority leaders, the York and North Yorkshire Mayor will allocate the funding to schemes to tackle regional issues, such as improving connectivity from rural areas, into towns and cities and across the North.
Elections for the first York and North Yorkshire Mayor will be held on May 2. Once in post, the new Mayor will lead the Combined Authority, working in collaboration with leaders of both City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council. As members of the Combined Authority, leaders commented:
North Yorkshire Council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said:
“We need to make sure that North Yorkshire has a transport network for both road and rail that is fit for purpose to help people travel across England’s largest county.
“Therefore, to have such a significant investment with the £380 million transport settlement announced by the Government for York and North Yorkshire will help in achieving this aim.
“Local leaders will be given the power to make collective decisions on how these funds are spent to improve connectivity from rural areas, into towns and cities and across the North.
“This is yet another example of how devolution is working for hundreds of thousands of people who live and work in York and North Yorkshire.
“It is supporting increased investment for strategic issues such as improving the transport network and bringing decisions previously made in Westminster closer to home.”
Councillor Claire Douglas, Leader of City of York Council said:
“Any announcement indicating additional funding is welcome but this one appears to include funding that has already been announced but which hasn’t yet arrived in York. Haxby Station funding, for example, has previously been announced but still hasn’t been confirmed in writing to us by Network Rail or the Government itself. The decision to press ahead with Haxby Station has sat with the Government for quite some time and we are still waiting for it to be given the formal go-ahead.
“As and when additional transport funding actually arrives I will be the first to welcome it and what it can contribute to improving the way people travel across our region but this latest announcement arrives with a great deal of uncertainty”.