Wakefield to receive share of £67.5m government fund allocated to Leeds City Region

On Monday (January 23rd) Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled her Industrial Strategy, in which she announced a £556m boost for the Northern Powerhouse initiative.

£156.9m of this Northern Powerhouse fund will be delegated across Yorkshire and the Humber to support a number of key projects.

The Local Enterprise Partnerships in the region that have been awarded funds include York, North Yorkshire, East Riding - £23.7m, Humber - £27.9m, Leeds City Region - £67.5m and Sheffield City Region £37.8m.

Wakefield is now set to receive a share of the £67.5m investment allocated to the Leeds City Region.

The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and West Yorkshire Combined Authority secured the government funding to help boost economic growth and create new jobs.

As for Wakefield, the funding will be used to develop City Fields in city to deliver new homes and to accelerate development on the M62 corridor. It will also be used to enable SMEs access grants to support the growth of their businesses and create new jobs and for a new flexible business support fund to help more companies export.

Cllr Peter Box CBE, Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Leader of Wakefield Council, said: “I am pleased that the Wakefield district is continuing to benefit from the funding that the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is able to secure.

“We’re already beginning to see just what can be achieved through genuine partnership working between councils and businesses - including the University Centre and new, affordable housing schemes.

“This new funding will be used across the district to continue to boost our local economy and create more jobs.”

This additional funding takes the total Growth Deal investment for the Leeds City Region to over £1.1bn.

The initial Leeds City Region Growth Deal, secured by the LEP in March 2014, was the largest Growth Deal settlement of any LEP area in the country. It enabled the Combined Authority and local council partners to put in place an overall £1bn investment package to upgrade West Yorkshire and York’s transport network.

The first scheme to benefit from this transport investment is the £33m Wakefield Eastern Relief Road which is set to be completed early this year, opening up new development land and creating job opportunities.