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The Leeds City Region Summit 2009
Economic leadership when it counts, where it counts
About the City Region
Recently announced as one of two pilot city regions across the country, the Leeds City Region Partnership brings
together the ten district authorities of Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Selby,
Wakefield and York, along with North Yorkshire County Council to work together toward a more prosperous economy
for their communities.
The city region reflects the real economy for these districts: the boundaries in which businesses operate,
supply chains function and communities live their daily lives. It is the area in which people travel to work, school,
and leisure, and as a result, it has cohesive labour and housing markets.
The Partnership is fundamentally based on subsidiarity as a principle - decisions will continue to be taken at local
level, except where it makes sense to do so at a city region level, which at present covers housing and regeneration,
innovation, higher level skills and worklessness, and transport.
The Economic Recovery and Our Pilot City Region Agenda
Facing some of the most challenging economic conditions of our generation, the city region Partnership now seeks
the freedoms and flexibilities to drive economic growth more effectively than has previously been possible.
As a pilot city region, the Leeds City Region Partnership has the unique opportunity to take on devolved responsibilities
which will enable it to tackle the impact of the downturn and lay the foundations for a stronger city region economy
through the recovery.
The Partnership has put forward a set of pragmatic proposals that would give city region partners greater
influence over simplified and streamlined funding streams. This will be achieved through joint planning and
investment arrangements with Government departments and its agencies in our core areas of collaboration -
housing and regeneration, innovation, higher level skills and worklessness, transport and innovation.
In other words, when city region partners decide what is needed for the city region economy, the decision will be made
jointly with relevant national and regional decisionmakers. Such arrangements will overcome the challenge of
having to spend so much time and effort campaigning for Government and its agencies to support and invest in city
region priorities by bringing them to the table when the priorities are agreed in the first place. Further, by bringing the
relevant decisionmakers to the same table, the Partnership will be able to effectively 'join up' what is, in some cases,
dozens (if not hundreds) of separate central government funding streams.
Find out more about the area, the Leeds City Region partnership, and our work at: http://www.leedscityregion.gov.uk.
