Devolution – what the people of Yorkshire really want

A very significant piece of citizens’ engagement has just concluded in Sheffield.

Yesterday was the final day of the Citizens Assembly which had met for two weekends of deliberation. The 31 participants – drawn as a broadly representative sample from Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster in response to an invitation by polling company YouGov – reached their conclusions through a deep process of engagement with the details of different potential devolution arrangements.

They voted for a directly elected regional assembly for Yorkshire and for stronger powers for the area to include some tax-setting and law-making powers over issues such as transport infrastructure, economic development and education.

Yorkshire Devolution Movement (along with others) has been calling for a much broader conversation to take place in Yorkshire than is happening at the moment. Essentially we want the people to be let into the process just as they were in Sheffield with the Citizens Assembly. It is clear from the findings from Sheffield (press release reproduced below) if a vote on the current devolution deal had been held this past weekend, a two-thirds majority of the Citizens Assembly members would have rejected it. Another vote showed strong opposition to an elected mayor.

We have argued all along that the best way to deliver real devolution to the people of Yorkshire with the powers that can make an impact on their lives and on the economy and environment here is through a directly elected assembly for Yorkshire. It is hugely encouraging that when the options are laid out to people in Yorkshire they come to the same conclusion.

See: South Yorkshire citizens want stronger Northern Powerhouse