News: South Yorkshire set to receive £1.3 billion
The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) has agreed a set of outcomes with Government to be delivered using £1.3 billion in devolved funding.
Called the integrated settlement, the funding backs a government strategy that provides local areas with a mandate "to act strategically to drive growth as well as support the shaping of public services, where strategic level coordination adds value."
The funding covers key themes such as economic development and regeneration, skills, transport and local infrastructure, and housing and strategic planning. It provides the combined authority with a much greater degree of certainty over medium term financial planning. SYMCA will also receive unprecedented powers of funding flexibility, which means that it will be able to move money between pillars as required to help achieve outcomes.
Developed alongside the new South Yorkshire Strategy and a Local Growth Plan, officials in the region have also developed an Integrated Settlement Outcomes Framework (ISOF) - a list of outcomes, indicators and targets that align with the wider ambitions set out in the strategy and growth plan.
The framework states: "SYMCA exists to deliver inclusive, sustainable growth that improves the lives of people across Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. Our vision is to build a bigger and better economy, ensuring that all communities can share in our prosperity.
"Our ambitions are set out in the emerging South Yorkshire Strategy, which provides the overarching direction for our work. Everything we do is intended to help deliver its three ambitions:
1. Every resident can stay near and go far
2. South Yorkshire is the healthiest region in the country
3. Every community is connected and proud of its place."
With the £1.3 billion budgeted for the next four years, SYMCA has headline aims to support hundreds more businesses and create hundreds more jobs.
For example, the funding will be used on initiatives that help 400 businesses to increase productivity with 400 jobs created in local priority sectors. SYMCA interventions within the Investment Zone are also targeted to unlock further commercial floorspace.
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On transport, where SYMCA is leading on multimillion pound bus franchising plans, targets have been agreed for two million more bus passengers and one million more tram passengers per year, as well as increases in passenger satisfaction levels.
Increasing the number of government-subsidised EV charging devices and the number of miles on the region's active travel network are also included.
Adult skills is another key area for investment, with SYMCA backed schemes targeting more than 27,000 achievements at a level 1 qualification and 29,000 at level 2. The target for level 3 is 2,700 by March 2029.
Supporting people into employment will also continue to be funded. Here, 9,632 is the target for the number of starts on supported employment programmes.
For housing, where previous schemes have supported new housing on brownfield land, the target is 800 new homes starting on site over the next four years.
A SYMCA report explains: "The Integrated Settlement represents the most significant change in SYMCA’s funding environment since its inception in 2014, moving us away from a fragmented funding structure to a more consolidated and flexible one.
"The process of agreeing outcomes, indicators and targets required us to balance local and central government ambitions and ensure that the targets are achievable with the funds available through Integrated Settlement.
"The outcomes, indicators and targets agreed in the ISOF do not represent everything we care about in South Yorkshire. The activity represented in the ISOF reflects the funding streams included in Integrated Settlement. The South Yorkshire Strategy will provide the opportunity to represent the region’s broader ambitions."
SYMCA is set to be held to account through six-monthly programme boards with Government but there is provision for renegotiating targets, by exception, in the event that delivery against targets is not on track.
SYMCA website
Images: SYMCA
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Called the integrated settlement, the funding backs a government strategy that provides local areas with a mandate "to act strategically to drive growth as well as support the shaping of public services, where strategic level coordination adds value."
The funding covers key themes such as economic development and regeneration, skills, transport and local infrastructure, and housing and strategic planning. It provides the combined authority with a much greater degree of certainty over medium term financial planning. SYMCA will also receive unprecedented powers of funding flexibility, which means that it will be able to move money between pillars as required to help achieve outcomes.
Developed alongside the new South Yorkshire Strategy and a Local Growth Plan, officials in the region have also developed an Integrated Settlement Outcomes Framework (ISOF) - a list of outcomes, indicators and targets that align with the wider ambitions set out in the strategy and growth plan.
The framework states: "SYMCA exists to deliver inclusive, sustainable growth that improves the lives of people across Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. Our vision is to build a bigger and better economy, ensuring that all communities can share in our prosperity.
"Our ambitions are set out in the emerging South Yorkshire Strategy, which provides the overarching direction for our work. Everything we do is intended to help deliver its three ambitions:
1. Every resident can stay near and go far
2. South Yorkshire is the healthiest region in the country
3. Every community is connected and proud of its place."
With the £1.3 billion budgeted for the next four years, SYMCA has headline aims to support hundreds more businesses and create hundreds more jobs.
For example, the funding will be used on initiatives that help 400 businesses to increase productivity with 400 jobs created in local priority sectors. SYMCA interventions within the Investment Zone are also targeted to unlock further commercial floorspace.
Advertisement
On transport, where SYMCA is leading on multimillion pound bus franchising plans, targets have been agreed for two million more bus passengers and one million more tram passengers per year, as well as increases in passenger satisfaction levels.
Increasing the number of government-subsidised EV charging devices and the number of miles on the region's active travel network are also included.
Adult skills is another key area for investment, with SYMCA backed schemes targeting more than 27,000 achievements at a level 1 qualification and 29,000 at level 2. The target for level 3 is 2,700 by March 2029.
Supporting people into employment will also continue to be funded. Here, 9,632 is the target for the number of starts on supported employment programmes.
For housing, where previous schemes have supported new housing on brownfield land, the target is 800 new homes starting on site over the next four years.
A SYMCA report explains: "The Integrated Settlement represents the most significant change in SYMCA’s funding environment since its inception in 2014, moving us away from a fragmented funding structure to a more consolidated and flexible one.
"The process of agreeing outcomes, indicators and targets required us to balance local and central government ambitions and ensure that the targets are achievable with the funds available through Integrated Settlement.
"The outcomes, indicators and targets agreed in the ISOF do not represent everything we care about in South Yorkshire. The activity represented in the ISOF reflects the funding streams included in Integrated Settlement. The South Yorkshire Strategy will provide the opportunity to represent the region’s broader ambitions."
SYMCA is set to be held to account through six-monthly programme boards with Government but there is provision for renegotiating targets, by exception, in the event that delivery against targets is not on track.
SYMCA website
Images: SYMCA
