Three Yorkshire Mayors Sign Co-Operation Agreement

The mayors of North, South and West Yorkshire have signed a "White Rose Agreement" at Selby Abbey.

The three regional mayors have signed an agreement to champion Yorkshire and work together on key areas, such as growth, rail connectivity,  cross-border bus services, and keeping communities safe.

North Yorkshire’s David Skaith ,South Yorkshire’s Oliver Coppard,  and West Yorkshire’s Tracy Brabin met at Selby Abbey to sign the White Rose Agreement which outlines the priority issues the mayors will work on together as well as what they will champion and advocate for Yorkshire collectively at a national and international level.

The five key areas they will focus on are:

• Achieving good growth
• Promoting Yorkshire
• Improving rail connectivity
• Improving cross-border bus services
• Keeping the communities safe

Following the 2 May 2024 Mayoral elections there are now three directly elected regional Mayors in Yorkshire with a combined population of 4.5 million people.

The White Rose Agreement will allow the Mayors to harness the powers of devolution to improve the lives of the millions of people they represent and work together towards collective goals for the whole of Yorkshire.

The White Rose Agreement recognises the power and authority the Mayors have in their own respective areas to improve the lives of people who live there with solutions that are right for them, but seeks to bring the Mayors together where working together on shared objectives can lead to better outcomes for Yorkshire as a whole.

The Mayors were joined by Council Leaders from the Mayoral Combined Authority areas who have all backed the White Rose Agreement. Mayors and Leaders will all work together to deliver on the priority areas.

The three Yorkshire Mayors also announced that they are already delivering on the ambitions in the White Rose Agreement with Lord David Blunkett leading a review for them on improving connectivity across Yorkshire which will be submitted to the government. Lord Blunkett is a political heavyweight who will bring his considerable experience to help deliver a better future for people who live, work and visit Yorkshire and his appointment shows what can be achieved by the three Mayors working together.

Following the elections for the Hull and East Yorkshire Mayor in May all three Mayor’s will seek to work closely with them and discuss being involved in the White Rose Agreement.

At the event, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, said:

“People across Yorkshire have a strong local identity, but when it comes to keeping communities safe, getting to work or college, or doing business, people don’t care about boundaries between one area of Yorkshire or another. They just care that they’re connected to opportunity and that’s what the White Rose Agreement is all about.   

“Yorkshire is a place that’s beloved by the people in it, and as a globally recognised brand. We want to share the unique strengths we each bring to the table, to ensure that we’re championing the region as a great place to live, work, visit and invest.

“Working together, we want every town, every rural hamlet, every coastal community, as well as our big cities, to feel the benefits of our collective ambition to deliver more for the people that we serve.”

Oliver Coppard, the mayor of South Yorkshire said working with the Yorkshire mayors was a huge opportunity to bring power, influence and agency back to the region.

Mr Coppard said: 

“Today, standing here, working together, signing this agreement, I think it’s a huge statement of intent about our work to make that vision a reality.”

Mr Coppard added that buses, for example, don’t stop at artificial borders when crossing from one part of Yorkshire to another as the communities are connected to each other while international visitors don’t come to South or West Yorkshire but to Yorkshire.

West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin hailed today as a “historic moment” and described the three mayors as the “Three Yorkshire Musketeers” working together delivering for their regions.

She added the mayors’ plan is to let everyone know that 

“Yorkshire is back in business and on the move”.

Oliver Coppard said the White Rose Agreement formalises the way of working together and sends a signal to everyone about their intent that Yorkshire is a place that attracts investment and visitors.

Ms Brabin added local issues have been resolved by collective effort which is good for the whole of Yorkshire as well as the individual regions.

When asked about whether the regions will have to compete with each other for extra money or investment, Ms Brabin said “we all have to thrive”.

She said: 

“If there is a big investment in food manufacturing, it might come to me then I might go to David (Skaith) saying how do we work collectively together with your farmers so we can all benefit from each other.

“We’ve got to get away from this bidding war and competitive edge where David (Skaith) wins and I lose. We’ve all got to understand that the only way to do this and grow the economy is to get rid of that sort of ringfence around your patch.”

David Skaith, the mayor of York and North Yorkshire, reiterated the message that the mayors and the regions will work together, and learn from each other.

He added by creating jobs in North Yorkshire, people from West and South (and the East Riding) may benefit as well.

“People don’t care about the borders,” he said.

Ms Brabin said there are 100,000 cars on the M1 every day between Leeds and Sheffield which is “absolutely absurd” and something must be done about it saying that South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire would work together to improve public transport.

All three mayors are from the Labour Party, so what happens if someone from the outside wins in the East Yorkshire election?

Ms Brabin said it doesn’t matter “they are part of the family”.

She said: “We would be very open to working cross party for the good of Yorkshire.”

Full text of the White Rose Agreement

The White Rose Agreement

We, the three directly elected Mayors of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and York and North Yorkshire, are harnessing the powers devolution gives us in our own communities to improve the lives of people we represent. Working together we want to secure deeper devolution to drive growth and tackle inequalities.

As Yorkshire Mayors, there are also opportunities for us to work together on shared interests to achieve impact on a bigger scale for the benefit of the combined 4.5 million people in our regions. In support of this, we pledge to:

1. Achieve good growth: We will collaborate on our emerging Local Growth Plans to ensure they are aligned in areas of common interest and supportive of each other. We will develop skills and drive investment in the creation of new, good-quality jobs across our urban and rural areas. We will seek to drive forward our ability to meet our net zero targets and transition to a low carbon circular economy, ensuring people across Yorkshire are at the forefront of the green industrial revolution. We will work alongside our government, the private sector and universities to increase R&D funding and sustainable finance models to drive forward innovation ensuring Yorkshire is the solution to the challenges of the future.
2. Promote Yorkshire: We will work collaboratively to champion Yorkshire as a place to do business, as well as attract more international investment into our regions. Alongside businesses, we will work to enhance the visitor economy by promoting Yorkshire both at home and abroad. We will work collaboratively to attract high profile cultural and sporting events and celebrate our heritage.
3. Improve rail connectivity: We will continue to advocate for Northern Powerhouse Rail in full, for the upgrading of the East Coast Mainline, for faster and more reliable services between Leeds and Sheffield, a new mainline station in Bradford, to secure the Penistone Line upgrade in full and light rail connectivity. We continue to work alongside government to improve rail connectivity between the Midlands, Yorkshire, and the North East, including increasing capacity at Leeds, Sheffield and York stations.
4. Improve cross-border bus services: We are committed to improving buses within our regions, but we know hundreds of bus journeys cross our borders each day. We commit to working together to improve cross-boundary bus services and delivering bus reform to connect towns and cities within Yorkshire.
5. Keep our communities safe: We will work together in our Police and Crime Commissioner roles and work with our police forces, the wider criminal justice system and VCSE sector to tackle violence against women and girls, cross-border crime, organised crime groups, youth crime prevention and take a public health approach to crime prevention.