Sheffield’s ambition to take greater control over transport strategy and spending took a major step forward on Friday as the City Region agreed a devolution deal with Government.

 

The deal will see the region elect a Mayor in 2017 in return for an additional £900M over 30 years to deliver infrastructure, regeneration and schemes aimed at boosting business.

 

Responsibilities of the new mayor will include managing the region’s transport budget, strategic planning, overseeing franchised bus services and the delivery of smart, integrated ticketing. He or she will also look after a key route network of local authority roads managed and maintained at a city region level by the Combined Authority.  

 

“This proposal marks the next step on our devolution journey and will enable local leaders to make bigger and better local decisions,” said Sheffield City Region Combined Authority chair Sir Stephen Houghton.

 

Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership chair James Newman added: “For too long Whitehall has been in control of major decisions affecting local places on important issues such as transport, skills, regeneration and infrastructure improvements. This deal goes some way to redressing this imbalance.”

 

Chancellor George Osborne described the deal as having “the power to change the shape of local government in the region in a way that would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago”.

 

This week’s announcement follows an agreement in June this year by the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority and the Local Enterprise Partnership to create a new structure with five executive boards covering skills, business growth, transport, infrastructure and housing. 

 

Sheffield’s Combined Authority was set up in 2014 and the Local Enterprise Partnership was formed in 2010.