York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Order 2023

Considered in Grand Committee

Moved by

That the Grand Committee do consider the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Order 2023.

My Lords, the purpose of this order is to implement the devolution deal agreed between the Government and the councils of York and North Yorkshire on 1 August 2022. Since then we have been working closely with those councils on implementation, and on 3 November 2023 they consented to the making of this order.

This order, if approved, will establish the new York and North Yorkshire combined authority and the office of mayor for the area, with the first election to take place on 2 May 2024. The elected mayor will then take up office on 7 May, with a four-year term ending after the next mayoral election in May 2028. Thereafter, there will be elections every fourth year, to be held on the ordinary election day for that year—that is, on the first Thursday in May. Following the enactment of the Elections Act 2022, these mayoral elections will be on a first past the post basis.

The mayor will be chair of the York and North Yorkshire combined authority, which comprises as constituent councils the city of York and North Yorkshire. The combined authority will be established on the day after the order is made, subject to parliamentary approval, which is likely to be before the end of the year. Until the elected mayor takes office there will be an interim chair of the combined authority. The combined authority will appoint one of its members as the interim chair.

The order also transfers police, fire and crime commissioner functions for North Yorkshire to the combined authority, to be exercised by the mayor. Additionally, the mayor and the combined authority will be conferred a range of other significant powers agreed in the devolution deal. These include a concurrent power with Homes England, powers on regeneration and transport, and powers for establishing mayoral development corporations. Education and skills functions, along with the devolution of the adult education budget, will be conferred on the combined authority at a later date, as agreed with the area. This is with a view to the area being responsible for skills and adult education from the academic year 2025-26. This is subject to the area meeting the readiness conditions and parliamentary approval of the secondary legislation conferring these functions.

The order also contains detail on the governance arrangements of the new combined authority, to reflect these powers and the role of the mayor. Each constituent council will have two members on the combined authority, one of these members being appointed by the mayor as deputy mayor. The mayor will also appoint a deputy mayor for policing and crime, who may be any person the mayor considers appropriate.

These governance arrangements include that the PFCC functions and certain other functions—including, for example, the power to designate a mayoral development area or to draw up local transport plans and strategies—are to be exercised by the mayor personally. The mayor may also delegate the exercise of these functions to another member or officer of the authority, with particular specified arrangements for the PFCC functions.

This order gives effect to the provisions of the devolution deal. I will briefly summarise these now. To improve the supply and quality of housing and facilitate the regeneration of York and North Yorkshire, the combined authority will be conferred powers for housing and regeneration, land acquisition and disposal. These powers will be exercised concurrently with Homes England, enabling the combined authority, working closely with Homes England, to promote housing and regeneration. The compulsory purchase of land will be a mayoral function and any decision will require consent from the York and North Yorkshire combined authority lead member whose local government area contains any part of the proposed land.

The order gives the mayor the power to designate mayoral development areas within the combined authority’s area to support the regeneration of strategic sites in the area of York and North Yorkshire. This designation is the first step in establishing a mayoral development corporation and a further order would be necessary to create such a body. The relevant powers concerning MDCs are conferred to the York and North Yorkshire combined authority, to be exercised by the mayor. These decisions will also require the consent of the respective York and North Yorkshire combined authority lead member whose council area contains any part of the designated area, and the North York Moors or Yorkshire Dales national park authorities if any part of the designated area sits within the national park.

The mayor will have control over a consolidated and devolved transport budget, with the power to pay grants to the constituent councils in relation to the exercise of their highways functions to improve and maintain roads. The mayor may pay grants to bus service operators for eligible bus services operating within the York and North Yorkshire area. Grants must be calculated in accordance with any regulations or methods made by the Secretary of State.

Police, fire and crime commissioner functions will be transferred to the York and North Yorkshire combined authority for exercise by the mayor. The order is clear that decisions around police and fire property, rights and liabilities are the mayor’s responsibility, and there remains a distinct police precept. All money relating to policing must be paid into and out of the police fund, and this money can be spent only on policing and matters that are related to the mayor’s PCC functions.

A new police and crime panel is also to be created, which will exercise broadly the same functions as a police and crime panel under the PCC model. The financial year of the PFCC is to be extended from 31 March until 6 May 2024 to rationalise accounting processes and avoid preparing additional accounts for the one-month interim period.

The order also includes constitutional provisions reflecting the powers conferred and the role of the mayor. There is provision regarding voting arrangements so that certain decisions exercising the functions conferred on the combined authority must include the mayor among the majority of members in favour of that decision. The order also provides for the establishment of an independent remuneration panel to recommend the allowances of the mayor and deputy mayor.

If the order is made, York and North Yorkshire will benefit from significant funding that was agreed for the area as part of the deal. The largest element of this is the £18 million of annual investment funding for York and North Yorkshire for the next 30 years. In total, this will provide £540 million to be invested in the area to drive growth and take forward local priorities. It also includes an additional £1 million to support the development of local transport plans, over £13 million for the building of new homes on brownfield land across 2023-24 and 2024-25, and £7 million to drive green economic growth, along with investment of up to £2.65 million on projects that support the area’s priority to deliver affordable, low-carbon homes.

As other combined authorities have shown, there is good evidence that devolution to geographies that reflect a functional economic area enhances economic performance, fiscal efficiency and policy delivery at both national and local levels. It can make government action more coherent locally and enhance local government’s contribution to solving problems in areas falling between individual policy fields. By conferring the powers on the new York and North Yorkshire combined authority, the provision of local services can be better aligned with locally determined priorities. This will all help the mayor and local leaders to drive economic growth and development for rural, coastal and urban communities across York and North Yorkshire.

I am keen to thank and recognise local leaders and their councils for all that they have done, and are continuing to do, to address local priorities and to support business, industry and communities across York and North Yorkshire, and for coming together to agree to this devolution deal.

Turning to the order-making process, this order will be made, if Parliament approves, under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, as amended by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016. As required by the 2016 Act, along with this order, we have laid a Section 105B report, which provides details about the public authority functions we are devolving to the combined authority, some of which are to be exercisable by the mayor. The statutory origin of this order is in a governance review and scheme adopted by the constituent councils in accordance with the requirements of the 2009 Act. The scheme proposed functions to be conferred on the combined authority, as envisaged in the devolution deal, and specified those which would be exercised by the mayor. The scheme also set out the governance proposals for the combined authority.

The councils of York and North Yorkshire consulted on the proposals in their scheme. The promotion of the consultation included a dedicated website, face-to-face engagement events across the region and widespread advertising. Responses could be made online or directly by email or paper. The consultation ran from October to December 2022, and a total of 2,500 people responded. The councils provided the Secretary of State with a summary of responses in March this year.

Responding to questions as part of an online survey, a majority—54%—supported or strongly supported the proposals for the governance arrangements for the new combined authority, including the election of a mayor for York and North Yorkshire. Specific questions on the powers to be conferred under transport, skills and employment, and housing and regeneration also received similar levels of support, as did the proposal for the transfer of police, fire and crime commissioner functions to a York and North Yorkshire mayor. On the question of finance functions, 49% of responses supported the proposals set out in the scheme.

In laying this draft order before Parliament, the Secretary of State is satisfied that the statutory tests in the 2009 Act are met—namely, that no further consultation is necessary; that conferring the proposed powers would be likely to improve the exercise of statutory functions in the combined authority area and would be appropriate, having regard to the need to reflect the identities and interests of local communities and to secure effective and convenient local government; and, where the functions are local authority functions, that they can be appropriately exercised by the combined authority. Furthermore, as required by statute, the constituent councils have consented to the making of this order.