The new Mayor of York and North Yorkshire is setting up a fund aimed at boosting town and city centres across the region.
Labour’s David Skaith started work as the area’s first elected Mayor on Tuesday after his triumph at the polls last week.
And today he revealed some of his first decisions, on an episode of Business Mix being broadcast on YorkMix Radio at 1.30pm.
Mr Skaith, who owns the Winstons clothing store in York, said he is creating a Mayor’s High Street Fund “to tackle our high streets, really drive investment and support them.
“We’re going to look at targeting every town across the region, we’re going to support every town by creating their own personal bespoke plans for how we can rejuvenate towns right across York and North Yorkshire,” he told Business Mix hosts Ben Fry and Phil Pinder
“What we’ll be able to do, which is really exciting, is go directly to businesses and support businesses opening up on our high streets.”
The fund would also look to help small business start-ups: “How we can take them from just an idea and how we can develop them straight into the high street. How we can grow our local economy and support our high streets – really how we can drive people right back into our towns right across the region.”
This would be done in consultation with businesses, the Mayor said.
“We’re going to create a board which is going to be made up of between 12 and 15 people, that’s going to be primarily from the private sector.
“We’re going to be working with small businesses, large businesses throughout the region, organisations such as the FSB [Federation of Small Businesses], for example.”
This would also help with closing the skills gap, by bringing businesses together with colleges and universities.
“Businesses can be sat alongside those training providers. So we can work really closely to develop the skills that workforce is going to need.
“So when our industries or businesses say, these are the sort of skills, or the workers, that we need next year, or in three years, five years, ten years down the road, we’ve got these people in the same room – so we really are collectively growing.”
Yorkshire-wide transport plan
On transport, Mr Skaith said the combined authority was going to appoint an individual to “be really bold” and make the changes required “because it is a ginormous issue that we have right across the region”.
He has a meeting on Monday with Tracy Brabin and Oliver Coppard, the mayors of West and South Yorkshire respectively, with transport at the top of the agenda.
“We have an opportunity to really think big on transport in particular. And linking in with the other two mayors in Yorkshire is going to be incredibly strong for that.
“We’re going to be sitting down to develop how we can build a plan for the whole of Yorkshire on transport.
“We know a lot of people travel from York to Leeds, for example. How we can improve that connection – that’s going to help our economy, that’s going to help people travel for work, it’s going to help industry – it’s just going to make everything and stronger long term.”
The strength of the role was being able to tackle York and North Yorkshire region wide, he said.
“We’re looking at the urban densely populated areas, say York, Selby or Harrogate. But also how we get out to the coast and how we look after all those remote areas as well, and do that collectively.
“A lot of the time, we’re finding the issues we have are actually replicated right across the region. If you live somewhere rural, if you live somewhere coastal, if you live somewhere urban, a lot of times we have the same sort of problems.”
These were things like “how we support transport, how we increase our affordable housing stock, how we support our high streets, how we support our towns, how we how we improve the skills of our workforce”.
“It doesn’t really matter where you live in the region, all those things that are going to impact you. So if we can put plans together that really support the entire region, then we’re going to grow as one.”
‘It’s been a whirlwind’
Mr Skaith said he has set up his main office in West Offices, which also houses the City of York Council HQ. But he would be travelling across North Yorkshire to carry out his role, he said.
Also in the interview, he was asked – what do we call you?
“It was pretty much the first question that I got asked when I walked in the door, how I’d like to be called, sir or mayor.
“I don’t like all that. Please just keep it really simple. Just call me David.”
He said the team at the combined authority had been doing “amazing work” in the background before his election.
“I’ve come in to try to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can, meet the team, have a look at the things that that have already happened and looking at things that I want to implement.
“So it has been a whirlwind, but it’s been really exciting, we’ve managed to get out and about a little bit as well. But it has been a very intense week.”
Ben asked him why he had put himself up for the role in the first place.
“For a long time, I realised that I wanted to do something slightly outside of the High Street,” Mr Skaith said.
“Like a lot of people I’ve just been incredibly tired and fed up about where where we’ve been going over the last 14 years.
“We’ve seen a huge amount of cuts to vital frontline services. We’ve seen high streets really struggling, a lot of people can’t afford to buy a home.
“My wife was a teacher for 13 years, I’ve seen the state of education. My older brother is a police officer in North Yorkshire. He does an incredible job with very small resources.
“My mum’s been on a waiting list for three years. And I just wanted to put myself forward and help.”