York and North Yorkshire Mayor pledges to 'do the basics'

Speaking after his dramatic election victory on Friday, York businessman David Skaith said he knew the region was crying out for change.

He thanked voters for trusting him to be the right man for the job.

And he told The Press: “(This) is a brand new role, so everything is pretty new, but I think we've got a great opportunity to really bring York and North Yorkshire together, really bring some investment, bring some support for the region.”

Asked about what his priorities would be on taking office on Tuesday, Mr Skaith said: "I have said from the beginning that we have to be building affordable homes.

"We haven't been doing the basics enough. We haven't been building affordable homes, creating a transport system that works for all, and training and giving the skills to the next generation of our workforce.

"We have a region that's very expensive to live in, to stay in, and we have a lot of people who are leaving, who are leaving our region. We need to be able to hold them here.”

York and North Yorkshire Metro Mayor David Skaith speaking at the Harrogate Convention Centre on Friday after his victory (Image: Alice Kavanagh)

On transport, he pledged to work with the Labour mayors of West and South Yorkshire and with Manchester and Liverpool to improve transport across the region, east to west.

He said what was needed was a 'whole northern powerhouse of transport, being able to move people east to West and all through Yorkshire.'

He also pledged to support the North Yorkshire coast region.

He said: "We're going to be doing a lot of work to support the coast.

"We know they have been cut off for a long time. We know we have great difficulties in transport connections over there.

"We need to be investing over there, we need to be building affordable homes, getting that connectivity,  making it possible for people to move from York to places like Scarborough, back and forth, joined up, so it’s working connectedly.

"Now we've got this opportunity to bring York and North Yorkshire together, we'll look at the really big picture over the entire region, not just focus on individual areas but bring it all together, because that's how we'll get the change we need."

The new Mayor will have a big budget and wide-ranging powers on issues such as regional transport, use of brownfield land to build new housing, and adult education.

He will preside over a ‘York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’ made up of delegates from both City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council.

Mr Skaith will chair a combined authority board or cabinet that includes two senior councillors from York and two from North Yorkshire.

And his job will be to work with that board to deliver ‘shared, long-term visions for the region,’ using some of the money and powers previously held by central government which have now been ‘devolved’ to the mayor’s office: a process known as devolution.

The new combined authority brings together rural North Yorkshire with urban York (Image: Stock)

The new Mayor’s areas of responsibility will include:

• administering the Mayoral Investment Fund, worth £540 million over 30 years, as well as the power to borrow more money over and above that 
• powers to secure the development of brownfield land for housing
• powers to improve regional transport connections through a devolved, multi-year transport settlement
• adult education.

He will also assume the powers of the police fire and crime commissioner – although he may well appoint a deputy to take on this role.

In the first year alone the new Mayor and the ‘combined authority’ over which he presides will have a total of nearly £57m to spend.

This includes £12.7 million for housing, to deliver more than 700 new homes on brownfield sites, and a further £7 million to support transition to net zero.

Mr Skaith will have a salary of £81,300 and will serve an initial four-year term.

The combined authority he leads will have its own staff, some of whom will be based in York’s West Offices, some in County Hall in Northallerton, seat of North Yorkshire Council.

The Mayor himself is expected to divide his time between the two council HQs.

City of York and North Yorkshire councils will continue to provide the services they do now, at a local level. The Combined Authority will work at a regional level in partnership with the two councils.