A better recovery for Yorkshire

The pandemic alone did not cause this economic crisis. It was made worse by a decade of austerity and the government’s failure to strengthen the UK’s economy. Choosing the wrong approach to recovery now risks embedding low growth, long-term unemployment and all the social ills that go alongside.

We need an investment for growth approach, with unprecedented state intervention, to support employment that is accessible, sustainable and fair. Without this, there will be no sustainable recovery.

An investment for growth approach means taking action on the five key recommendations we have identified.

Recommendations

• Make Yorkshire a Fair Work region through a fair work charter, a jobs guarantee, setting conditions for business support, and using the convening power of metro mayors to achieve genuine social partnership through regional sectoral forums
• A worker centred transition to a low carbon economy through a regional Just Transition Commission to coordinate investment, learning skills agenda, a ReAct style redundancy response programme, procurement rules to support local manufacturing, and regional leadership on the COP targets
• A 21st century public transport network for Yorkshire led by investment in mass transit systems for our city regions, public control of our buses, local procurement for low-carbon vehicles, and reimagining our travel modes to Europe through night trains and sea links
• An equal and racially just recovery led by new rules on procurement and commissioning, equality and racial justice scrutiny boards for local authorities; and support for power, privilege and discrimination training for businesses and the wider workforce
• Find Yorkshire’s new place in the world through building our relationships with our border regions, a rights-based approach to newly devolved trade powers and establishing an independent presence for our region in Brussels.

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