One of the enduring questions in English cities policy these days is: what’s gone wrong in Yorkshire?
Earlier this year, after all, a number of metropolitan regions – those around Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool among them – all elected their first metro mayors. Yet neither of the conurbations in what was once the West Riding of Yorkshire – one centred on Leeds, the other centred on Sheffield – did the same. This is particularly surprising, since the Sheffield City Region deal was supposed to have been agreed ages ago.
So: what went wrong – and is it likely to go right any time soon? To discuss this, I’m joined by a man who knows more about devolution policy in god’s own country than anyone else on the planet, James Reed, the political editor of the Yorkshire Post. He tells a tale of power struggles, factionalism, back-stabbing and betrayal. It’s like Game of Thrones, only with more transport funding.
The episode itself is below. You can subscribe to the podcast on Acast, iTunes, or RSS. Enjoy.
Jonn Elledge is the editor of CityMetric. He is on Twitter as @jonnelledge and also has a Facebook page now for some reason.
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