The Yorkshire & Humber Strategy & other policy work

At the end of 2008 the Government announced its response to the consultation on the “Sub National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration” (SNR for short). The purpose of the review was to look for ways to drive forward economic growth in the English regions, and particularly to tackle pockets of persistent deprivation.

The Government concluded that this would be best achieved by targeting policy at the right spatial level; regional, sub regional, and local. Local Authorities would be given new responsibilities for economic development, including working more closely with each other and at the regional level decision making would be simplified. The key planning functions of the Regional Assemblies would be transferred to the RDA and Local Authority Leaders’ Board, and a new governance structure would be established. Existing regional strategies, including Spatial and Economic, would be replaced by an all embracing Integrated Regional Strategy (IRS), now known as the Yorkshire & Humber Strategy.

What will be in the Strategy

• An overview of the key regional and sub regional challenges including economic, social, health, and well being.
• How sustainable economic growth can be delivered.
• How we can create sustainable, well connected, and inclusive, mixed housing communities.
• Addressing climate change and energy.
• Identification of areas or communities that should be priorities for regeneration and investment.
• Ensuring that economic growth takes into account available infrastructure, including transport, waste, water, and minerals.
• Widening access to culture, media, and sport.

How the Regional Forum is responding on behalf of the sector

The Regional Forum is being pro-active to ensure that the sector is fully engaged with the Strategy process. We are fully involved, as a key stakeholder, in discussions about Strategy Developments, securing representation on the Consultation and Engagement Task and Finish Group led by Yorkshire Forward. The role of this group is to ensure that all relevant organisations are engaged with the development of the Strategy. We submitted comments to the informal consultation on the draft Project Plan, secured some changes to the plan and will be submitting evidence to the Strategy Key Lines of Enquiry, and helping the sector to do so.

Read our guide to submitting evidence.

We formed a VCS Leaders Advisory Group to offer expertise, intelligence, and understanding to regional decisions on skills, the environment, community development, and the whole process of policy making.

A major conference, organised by the Regional Forum called “Making Connections; the third sector and the Integrated Regional Strategy” was held on 13th October 2009. This focused on how the experience and work of the sector could be utilised to inform the development of the Strategy. It was well attended, and involved, Yorkshire Forward, Local Government Yorkshire and Humber, Government Office Yorkshire and the Humber, and the new economics foundation, as well as representatives from across the region’s voluntary and community sector. A report from the conference is now available.

We are promoting a more sustainable view of economic development using the new economics foundation think piece; “Living better, using less”.

All this information is contained in the Strategy (IRS) Briefing just published by the Regional Forum.

Evidence Hearings

Yorkshire Forward and Local Government Yorkshire and the Humber issued the following statement on Monday 8th February 2010 regarding the Yorkshire and Humber Strategy evidence hearings due to take place during February and March.

" As you may be aware, we have decided to cancel the evidence sessions we had planned for this month to support the development of the Yorkshire and Humber Strategy.

The background to this decision relates to the General Election, as we will experience more uncertainty around how the policies and priorities of the main political parties will affect us in the short and longer term. Add to this the development of the city/functional sub regions, the pressures of the current financial climate and the need to focus our resources where they are needed most and it becomes clear that our decision is the right one at this time.

Our teams will continue to work on evidence collection because it is a vital part of testing our processes and ensuring that we continue to meet local, city/sub regional and regional needs in all we undertake. We will, of course, keep in touch in terms of our progress and our plans following the election and we appreciate all the good work you have made possible so far.

Clare Coates, Deputy Chief Executive, LGYH
Simon Foy, Strategy Director, Yorkshire Forward "

Stephen Fox is the Development Officer for Policy and Engagement at the Regional Forum. He can be contacted on 0113 394 2300, or email: Stephen Fox

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Upcoming Events

22/04/2010: "How the region works" - Regional Forum Information Session
Venue: Regional Forum, Leeds Time: 1.30pm - 4.00pm * Do you understand how governance structures work at the regional level? * Where does the voluntary and community sector fit in? *...

01/07/2010: Creating better futures awards 2010
Venue: Leeds For the last ten years Yorkshire Forward has worked with a wide range of partners to support community-based economic development. During this time we've seen many inspiring projects, ...