Investment Board - Thursday 3 September 2026, 11:00am - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Investment Board
Thursday, 3rd September 2026 at 11:00am

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Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Mike Payne Calderdale Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Liz Hunter, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Kate Taylor, Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Bob Felstead Chair - Scrutiny Committee
Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council
Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council
Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council
Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council
Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council
Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council
Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council
Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council
Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Bob Felstead Chair - Scrutiny Committee
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Mike Payne Calderdale Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Mike Payne Calderdale Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)

9 Economic Development

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Item 9 - Economic Development - Project Approvals

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire

10 Creative Industries, Culture, Heritage and Sport

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Item 10 - Creative Industries, Culture, Heritage & Sport - Project Approvals

11 Date of the Next Meeting

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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:00:04

and welcome everybody to this meeting of the Investment Board, a really important board

for delivery for West Yorkshire. We have many new faces around the table, so I wonder if

we could just do a round of introductions. I have your names on your nameplate, but if

you could say which council you're from, that would also help me. So if we start with Councillor

Payne. Hello, welcome. And if you remember to press the button on your speaker.

Cllr Cllr Mike Payne Calderdale Council - 0:00:32

I'm Councillor Mike Payne, that's Payne with a Y, not with an I, although people would

argue against that maybe.

And I'm from Calderdale and I'm a Councillor for Sorby Bridge.

Happy Valley.

Indeed.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:00:45

Thank you so much, Councillor Payne, and what a great show that was.

Councillor Hayne.

Yes, I'm Councillor Martin Haye, I'm from Calderdale and from the Mooer in North Arowan

Shelf.

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:00:56

You're very welcome. Nice to see you. Councillor Eaglin.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:03

Yeah, Ian Eaglin, Councillor in Bradford. I look after corporate affairs on the cabinet

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:01:05

there. I'm standing in for Andrew Judson. Superb. Thank you so much. And you obviously

won't know colleagues, so Liz. Thank you. So Liz Hunter, Interim Executive

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:19

Liz Hunter, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:01:21

Director for Transport at the Kermain Authority. Good morning all. Simon Pope, Transport Capital

programme director at the combined authority.

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:01:25

Kate Taylor, Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:01:28

Kate Taylor, director of financial services and statutory finance officer for the combined

authority.

Felix, director for inclusive economy, skills and culture at the combined authority.

Hello, I'm Sarah Eaton, director of strategy at the combined authority.

Councillor Felstead, we know each other.

We know each other well.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:49

Cllr Bob Felstead Chair - Scrutiny Committee - 0:01:51

Council Felstead from Bradford but also scrutiny share at the command authority.

Council Appinda from Wakefield Council and I'm a portfolio holder for district

regeneration and regional growth.

Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council - 0:02:02

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:02:04

Hi I'm Raf Cone I'm from Bradford as well and I

represent a ward right up in the northwest called Steetensilsdon and Eastborough.

Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council - 0:02:13

Hi everybody I'm council Salmer I'm a fleet at your council and the exec member for

economy. Thank you.

Good morning everyone, Ben Stell, Chief Executive of the Command Authority.

Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:23

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:02:26

I'm Councillor Sarah Courtney, I'm from Calderdale Council and I represent Heptenbridge and Todmordan East Ward

and I'm Deputy Chair of this board.

Tracy the Mayor.

Nicky Deo, Chief Legal Officer and Monitoring Officer.

Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:39

Miles Larrington, Committee Services Officer, West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

And thank you for everything you do Myles. You keep us on target, on time and online. So thank you.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:02:46

Okay, so

hopefully we'll all get to know each other over the next few years. Let's get on with the meeting. Any apologies Myles?

Apologies for absence may have been received from Councillor Simon Brophy,

Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:03:00

Councillor Andrew Dudsham with Councillor Ian Eaglin, kindly attending as his substitute and Councillor Keith Ingle with Councillor Mike Payne, kindly attending as his substitute.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:03:13

Thank you so much and if colleagues are happy when I come to the item for a

discussion from your local authority I'll come to you for a few opening words

if that's okay. Okey -doke so declarations of interest

anyone any declarations that they would like to tell the board about? Yes

Councillor Courtney. It's not a direct interest but I'm a director of C &K

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:03:36

and we do have an item later on about careers and stuff, so I just wanted to be clear about

that. Thank you.

Thank you for that transparency. Nicky, there's any particular challenge there?

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:03:48

No, there's no conflicts that arise from that, but they can be recorded for transparency

on the minutes, please.

Okay, super. Moving on. There are no exempt items today, which we press on as normal.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:04:01

We've all had the minutes held on of the meeting held 16th of July.

Any comments on those on those minutes?

No?

Jolly good.

Thank you.

All righty, let's move on to item five, which is the mayor's update.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:04:16

Well, it's been quite a busy summer, hasn't it?

A number of announcements that have been coming out of number 10 north.

rewiring the state, the cabinet statement setting

out that new vision for how the country can be run.

The new model government sets out to empower mayors

and local leaders to drive that growth and improve

public services.

And government's really ambitious strategy for

greater local control over tax revenue and the need to

develop stronger local institutions.

It's a long and detailed statement and definitely

worth a read.

and the government has committed to developing a new white paper

to deliver the statement in the coming months.

And I'm grateful for Ben Still's contribution

to that thinking as well.

So, thank you for your leadership.

As a combined authority,

we are really actively engaged in this work,

and it's been co -produced with mayors and CA leaders,

chief execs from across the country.

There is a few specific examples of public service reforms

to be reintroduced, new responsibilities for the CA,

homelessness, waste crime.

You may see the Prime Minister came to Bradford

to talk about the illegal waste dump there and what

he, the strengthening powers for mayors and

leaders to stop these illegal dumps blighting

people's lives.

And we'll need to really work collaboratively as a

delivering on these new powers.

And there's a longer and more detailed update coming

to the CA meeting later this month, but I think

it's appropriate there's a longer discussion there

about the implications of the statement for our region.

But I'm genuinely really excited about the change

in direction, change in tone, and how that

understanding that we're the most centralised

country in Europe, and that has held us back.

And if we can close the productivity gap here in West

Yorkshire, the opportunity is growth of 26 billion.

It is definitely worth going on this journey to further

devolution and to drive that greater growth,

which will give us more investable opportunities in

public services and improve outcomes for our residents.

So I think it's all a good news storey.

Okie doke.

If we are happy, let's move on to the project approvals.

And this is going to take the papers as read as an introduction report to help open up

the subsequent project approvals reports.

When people we've had a number of these boards with new people, and I think it's really good

to have, and I want to thank colleagues for this, the context in which these decisions

have been made in order to try and get people up to speed to make sure that the conversation

comes from knowledge.

And it's also to help people understand how we make

decisions at the CA, because it's not always the same as

at local authority level, and how those decisions flow

through the assurance process.

There are no decisions as part of this paper, but any

questions from what you've read so far before we move on?

No?

Good.

Okie dokie.

Thank you.

So, members are recommended to note the information outlined in that report.

Moving on to item seven, which is transport and local infrastructure.

This includes three schemes which will contribute towards policy priorities and target indicators

of the recently adopted local transport plan.

The first project is the Westgate connector which is hedgerow to Marlborough Street in

Leeds.

I wonder whether Councillor Arif, is there anything you would like to comment before

I bring in Simon Pope on this particular scheme in Leeds?

Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council - 0:08:16

Thank you, from my perspective I have looked at the scheme, I have had a briefing on it

as well.

It's an important scheme for those of you that know that part of the world.

it would be quite welcome to have these measures in place.

Looking at the documents in terms of overall support, elected members were fully supportive,

which is I think really important as elected members know their ward quite well, but generally

in terms of the local college around the corner, really supportive and very much engaged because

it's a corridor that ensures that we've got loads of students in that area.

So I am fully supportive of this scheme from what I've seen it and I have no further comments.

Thank you.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:09:00

Simon if you'd like to take us through it.

Thank you, Mayor.

So just to expand a little on Councillor Rees' introduction.

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:09:09

The scheme aims to remove barriers created by the current highway layout for pedestrians

and cyclists when they're travelling between Leeds City Centre and Burley Road.

Areas that will benefit most from this scheme are home to a significant student population

and a large proportion of households that don't have access to a car.

As touched on as well, the scheme will provide better connectivity to Leeds City College's

Park Lane campus and address known safety concerns given the high proportion of cyclist

casualties that are recorded in the area.

Proposals include provision of a segregated cycleway, new sections of footway and improved

crossing facilities.

Traffic signals will also be upgraded to the latest technology which will enable busses

to be prioritised at junctions and signal timings to change in response to different

traffic conditions to reduce any impact on motorists.

Total cost of the scheme is 6 million pounds, which 5 .8 million pounds is from combined

authority funding.

This has increased since the original scheme concept was identified due to changes in scope

in order to address safety issues across a wider area and the inclusion of measures to

ensure any impacts on motorists are minimised.

The scheme is categorised as median value for money when assessed against target beneficiaries

and there is a strong strategic case for investment to cater for suppressed demand, address the

poor safety record and support further regeneration on the edge of the city centre.

The recommendation is to approve release of the total funding so that the scheme can enter

into delivery and subject your approval, construction would start in October and is due to complete

in October of next year.

Super. Any comments on this scheme?

Yes. Happy to do so.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:10:46

I've actually reviewed the report which for me was, as I said at the pre -meeting, insufficient

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:10:50

in its detail. I'm very grateful in the time available that Simon -Pope's produced a more

detailed assessment for us. This scheme actually, when we consider every resident in the area

to have as poor value for money, which I think is a very important point, we're not here

We're here to serve distinct groups.

We're here to serve all our residents and to make all of

their lives better, not just locally within a very small

part of Leeds, but in the very part of this combined

authority area.

And also, I want to talk about Leeds is a critically

important city.

Leeds is a city that, in my opinion, in the last 10

years, has done a hell of a lot of damage to itself with

some of the transport changes.

People in the area I come from travel into Leeds less.

We use the nighttime economy here less.

We avoid opportunities here.

would prefer to go to somewhere closer, would go to Skipton,

would go to Ilkley now, would prefer to go to Harrogate.

The recent transport changes haven't even

benefited the people they're supposed to benefit.

My mother -in -law is entirely dependent on public transport.

It takes her regularly 15 minutes longer

to get into Leeds, to the centre,

to the point where she'd rather not.

She now doesn't come into Leeds as much.

She'll go to Tong, or she'll go to Pudsey instead.

We need to be very careful here.

We are at danger of strangling leads.

Leads itself, I would note, has become very overly

dependent on overseas students for a large part

of its universities.

That puts us at significant risk, and actually

increasing spending on a population that does not

invest in leads and leads straight away is not, in my

view, a very sensible use of public money,

particularly when most of the majority of them are overseas students.

Fundamentally though, the modelling is insufficient.

The modelling undertaken does not accommodate the adaptive traffic signals,

so we haven't actually modelled it.

We haven't modelled the impact.

We've not done modelling of a standard that shows that these signals will work.

It's simply, basically, a guess to be polite.

And in some of the industry sectors I've come from,

which have a very high level of involvement in health

and safety matters, such as the oil industry,

that would be totally and utterly unacceptable.

But the technologies exist to model those,

such as finite element analysis.

The sources of the models are ones that have dubious sources.

They are the ones that have been developed specifically around

the purpose of the scheme.

In other words, they have an inherent prejudice towards

active travel, ignoring other types.

So even though it says value for money poor here,

it's actually probably even worse,

because the types of modelling we've done

from the sources of the modelling

are ones that have an inherent bias,

particularly those from active travel England

who have a track record of providing models

that are insufficient or have been subject

to extremely critical academic review over the years.

So I would be minded to not vote for this.

I'm not against improving safety for cyclists at all,

but not for six million pounds

for a very small part of Leeds

that will have impacts on Leeds

and why either there is the Leeds itself.

We need to serve all our residents and we must not commit leads to economic suicide

by making things worse.

So I commit against it.

Thank you.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:14:01

As a board, we do tend to keep opinions about communities to the people who live there,

because I would suggest that the difficulty getting into leads, we are absolutely tackling

with the tram and with bus franchising because we understand that people like your mom need

to access Leeds, particularly when it comes to the hospital, and that's why the tram is

so important, not only for the people of Leeds or Bradford, but the people of Calderdale

and more widely, because when they come to the hospital or they want to visit their young

person at the university, they want to get that greater connectivity because we are being

held back by poor connectivity.

We may disagree on the value of active travel or cycle lanes and I value your candour.

I wonder, Simon, if you could maybe speak to the technical points rather than the opinion.

Yes, ma 'am.

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:15:04

So as part of the scheme, there are proposals to reallocate some road space, but it's not

this can be accommodated without detriment to general traffic because there is surplus

highway capacity on this part of the network as a result of prior changes that have been

made to access arrangements and traffic flows in the city centre.

It's true to say that the benefit cost ratio for the scheme is eroded when highway dis

benefits are included in that calculation and that does reduce the value for money category

to poor. However, the modelled evidence suggests that

the actual impact to individual vehicles will be modest, totalling about 10 to 20 seconds

per vehicle on a limited number of movements and a limited number of time periods only.

When that's aggregated up against the number of vehicles, this does erode the net benefits

of the scheme accordingly, but it's worth bearing in mind that, as recognised in the

Treasury's Green Book, that a strong strategic case for investment can mean that a benefit

cost ratio is only a partial representation of a scheme's value for money case, and we

believe that is the case in this instance.

It's also worth noting, as the Councillor pointed out, that the modelled disc benefits

do not take account of the dynamic signal controls.

We therefore feel that the modelled impacts are an overestimate in this instance.

The constraints of the modelling software that have been used mean that we can't take

those into account as part of the methodology.

We don't believe it would be proportionate to do so.

But further to my earlier point, we feel that the scale of impact is not expected to be

tangible to most users.

Thank you so much. Any further commentary? Yes, Councillor Hayne.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:16:41

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:16:53

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:16:55

Yes, that's taken from census data.

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:17:02

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:17:08

Again, yes, they recorded official statistics.

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:17:17

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:17:40

So the benefits of introducing signals to facilitate the new crossing arrangements but

also the adaptive control that's proposed as part of those signals means that we can

respond more dynamically to changing traffic conditions which, you know, on occasion can

reduce congestion at certain times of the day.

Thank you, Councillor Hay, and thank you so much for raising traffic accidents because

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:18:04

As a region, we want to be an exemplar in vision zero.

And it's been really pleasing that only last week we got the data that was sadly fatalities

are not coming down.

In serious incidences and injuries on our roads are coming down.

And I do think that is about our laser focus on road safety.

And as a Councillor, you'll understand, as I have, spending time when I was a member

of parliament in people's front rooms with grieving families and families whose lives

will never be the same again because of an accident that's happened on our roads.

That's why I've tasked Alison Loward, my deputy mayor, to chair that board and that's why

we've invested millions into it because we want to keep all of our citizens safe on the

roads.

So the work we're doing, this is part of that safer road strategy as well.

So thank you for your contribution.

Councillor Arith.

Thank you, Chair.

Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council - 0:19:05

So just anecdotally I went to this college a few years back and actually having spoken

to a lot of my local residents that live in Gipton Harehills that will be attending the

college so I'm really happy that they'll have a safer route into their education.

Equally I think the point you raised Councillor Haye is that particular area as opposed to

the rest of Leeds 62 % of people do not own a vehicle and actually rely very much on the

So, you know, for that benefit I think this is really important and it's the safety of

our local residents as well as students, albeit international or foreign or local.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

And to Ian, you wanted to come in.

Yes, thank you.

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:19:51

I just wanted to ask Simon about 4 .16, but you've already kind of answered it.

I wanted to know what the – why the cost benefit analysis had dropped so dramatically.

And I think the way you've explained that is that basically when you include the road

traffic, the cars, that's what drops it down for those users.

The other thing is obviously with 4 .12, this seems to be a major pivot away from motor

cars, motorcycles, road traffic to cycle lanes.

And finally, I was just going to ask about if cars are deterred from using this road,

will they be forced onto other roads and cause congestion on other roads?

Has that been modelled at all?

Thank you Simon. Yes so the, as I was alluded to previously, there have

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:20:38

been some significant changes to access arrangements within Leeds city centre

over the past few years including the closure of city square to traffic

which has fundamentally changed the traffic flows through the city centre

and therefore this part of the network actually has a provision of over

capacity at the moment because traffic flows have since reduced, enabling greater flexibility

to implement the proposals that are part of this scheme.

So the other points you required clarification on.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:21:07

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:21:08

The other point was have we modelled whether or not it will cause congestion elsewhere

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:21:14

if traffic is diverted from this area?

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:21:19

And the modelling associated with this scheme has just been modelled specifically in the

scheme area.

But those traffic flows that have been formed, the model has been taken from across the wider

parts of the network.

Thank you so much.

And I know that there's a real ambition from Leeds City Council to follow in Bradford's

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:21:39

footsteps about improving air quality in the city centre.

And it's been very pleasing to see that the introduction of the clean air zone in Bradford

has reduced children's appointments for respiratory appointments in doctors' surgeries by 25%,

which is very reassuring for a lot of families in Bradford.

So I think that's also a good analysis and contribution.

So thank you for that.

Okie doke.

So if there's no other contributions, let's move to a vote.

So recommendations for the west gate connector hedgerow to Marlborough Street scheme, the

investment board with reference to 4 .18 and 4 .19 in the report.

One approves that the west gate connector scheme proceeds through decision .2 to 4 and

work commences on activity 5 which is delivery.

And .2 approves the combined authorities funding of 5 ,826 ,972 pounds and the total scheme cost

First is 5 ,999 ,806 pounds.

And third, approves that future approvals are made in accordance with the assurance

pathway and approval route and tolerances set out in the business case summary attached

to the report.

Now, all those in favour, please raise your hand.

Thank you.

All those against, thank you.

And no abstentions.

Thank you so much.

I'm so sorry.

Two abstentions.

Apologies.

The recommendations have been carried.

Thank you.

Moving on to the Brunswick street footpath improvements in Huddersfield.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:23:22

Simon, if I could ask you to speak to this.

And I don't think we have a member from Huddersfield with us, from Kirklees with us today.

So we'll just come to you, Simon.

Thank you, Mayor.

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:23:39

So this scheme aims to provide a safer and more direct route for pedestrians and cyclists

when accessing Huddersfield Town Centre from areas to the northwest.

This will better connect neighbourhoods of low car ownership and high levels of deprivation

with employment, education and leisure opportunities in the town centre and beyond through onward

connectivity to the bus and rail stations.

We'll also complement future ambitions as part of the Huddersfield Station Gateway project.

The scheme involves upgrading the existing path, introduction of lighting and provision

of step -free access.

Total cost of the scheme is £513 ,000 funded in full by the combined authority.

The scheme is categorised as median value for money and is predicted to increase the

number of people walking and cycling into the town centre.

The recommendations are to release the balance of funding totalling £429 ,000 to enable the

scheme to enter delivery.

subject to your approval, construction would start in October and be completed by the end of this year.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:24:37

Thank you and knowing the centre of Huddersfield as I do, I think this is a really good scheme to connect the station with the bus station.

And that people were taking longer routes weren't they? Because it was an unattractive cut through.

And the money that we're spending on the Huddersfield station and the new electric busses that are

coming in as part of the Weaver network, we definitely want more people to come out of

the railway station and then be able to get quickly to the bus station.

Any comments on this particular item?

Thank you.

Councillor Cohen.

Thank you so much for providing the more detailed breakdown of figures after we asked where

the cost was.

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:25:11

That's much appreciated.

Having looked at those, I don't quite understand one of your figures in here.

MPG supply powers new columns is quoted at zero. Does that mean there's already a supply

in place? I would need to go and provide the detail

on that. I don't have the answer to hand.

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:25:35

If Councillor is content, we'll provide you with that in a timely fashion after this meeting.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:25:41

Thank you. We won't be able to vote on this because we

I don't know if you have the full facts at hand.

Councillor Eglin.

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:25:46

My apologies.

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:25:52

So as per the previous scheme, has a cost benefit analysis been carried out when highway

users are involved or does that include highway users?

So because the scheme is effectively upgraded to an existing path, there is no impact on

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:26:12

highway users and therefore the value from any position presented in the papers is the

overall position.

Just one further quick question.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:26:25

How do you calculate the benefits from a footpath?

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:26:26

So there are various tools available published by different government departments to enable

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:26:34

us to calculate the benefit for pedestrians and cyclists. I can provide further details

on this if required, but essentially a lot of the benefits result from reduced journey

time savings from taking a more direct route, health benefits and other associated benefits.

And for me, one area of interest is safety of women and girls. If you've got a footpath

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:26:56

that has extra lighting, is more attractive, you're going to get more sense of safety,

so that more women, I'm hoping, will use this footpath to connect from the station to the bus station.

Thank you.

I've tasked my officers to rapidly find out about that particular question, Councillor Cohen.

I'm not Cone.

Cone. Apologies. You're all new members, so please do forgive me. I'm just getting used to it.

I'm just asking Cone for the statement.

Thank you. Apologies.

is Councillor Koon, you're very welcome. Okeydoke, have we got an answer to Councillor Koon's

–

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:27:35

Come back to this.

Yes, okay, we will come back to this, but we will take the vote at this point, or come

back to the vote. Okay, thank you. Right, so let's get our squirrels behind the scenes,

find a solution to that question, and we will come back to that. So let's move on to Tolar

lane, the junction improvement scheme in Bradford.

This is the third and final transport and local infrastructure scheme.

The A6177 Toller Lane junction improvement scheme in Bradford.

Would Councillor Eglin like to speak to this or Councillor Cone?

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:28:17

Yeah, I can have a quick word, a very quick word because I am substituting this on it.

I have used this traffic in roads in this area quite extensively.

Where this proposal is planned to be made is an area that does need improvement.

It is a bit of a dump, to be honest.

And the congestion of the traffic around there would benefit from having this scheme.

Super.

Simon.

Thank you, there.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:28:47

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:28:48

So for those that aren't aware, Toller Lane Junction with the outer ring road is one of

the main arterial routes into Bradford.

It experienced significant congestion and delays at peak times, particularly during

the evening peak, and it suffers a poor accident record.

This impacts access to key attractors, including the hospital, reduces reliability of bus services

and impacts detrimentally on local residents due to rat -wheeling and vehicle emissions.

The proposed scheme increases capacity for all vehicles through an improved junction

layout and upgraded traffic signals with priority provided for busses.

The scheme also includes new pedestrian crossings and safer facilities for those walking and

cycling through the junction.

In order to simplify the junction arrangement and prevent rat running, Cross Road is to

be closed as part of the proposal.

The total cost of the scheme is £8 .6 million to be funded in full by the command authority.

The scheme originally formed part of a combined scheme with Thornton Road, which secured outline

approval back in 2019.

The Thornton Road scheme was subsequently prioritised for implementation and advanced

separately and is currently in delivery.

The ability to deliver Tolar Lane now will maximise delivery of outcomes across the two

schemes providing a significant contribution towards our local transport plan outcome.

Costs have increased since those estimated at concept stage for the combined scheme due

to changes in scope following consultation feedback, land assembly requirements and intervening

inflation as a result of the later delivery that is now proposed.

Nonetheless the scheme is categorised as high value for money reflecting the significant

benefits that can be attributable to all road users.

The recommendations are that the scheme is approved for delivery with £255 ,000 of development

funding released now to conclude land assembly and the balance of funding totalling £6 .4

million released subject to the discharge of relevant conditions.

To subject your approval works would start on site in October and are due for completion

in November 2027.

Superb, thank you.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:30:49

Councillor, any comments?

Yes, just two small things.

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:30:56

Firstly, have we talked to the residents about the road closure and what was their response?

Secondly, I did some very quick surveying, as best you can through social media and the

things.

There's a significant number of residents, it seems, who are not in favour of the scheme,

mostly on the basis of the cost, not and also the idea, I think probably mistakenly, the

idea that the junction was fine until recently, which I think the accident data doesn't show,

if I remember rightly.

That's an observation I don't particularly pay one weight to it one way or the other,

but the first one I'm more interested in is what was the what the residents feel

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:31:33

on the road that's being closed. Thank you Simon. So the scheme design was

actually changed in response to feedback from residents because they were

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:31:41

concerned that Cross Road would be used as a rat run to avoid the signals so the

introduction of the closure is in direct response to their concerns. Thank you

Councillor Courtney.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:31:53

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:31:54

Yeah, thank you. Obviously one of the combined authorities remits is about looking at trying

to reduce health inequalities and working with local authorities to reduce health inequalities

and some of the outcomes for this scheme are around increasing people being a bit more

active, which has such a massive benefit for people's health. It's the nearest thing to

a silver bullet, I think, in terms of people's health is being a little tiny bit more active

and there's sort of proof around that. But also the reduction in casualties and improvement

in air quality is all such important things that I think that these things, you know,

often people are worried about. I think these things are so important to be able to deliver

on that I just think this is a really important scheme.

Thank you. Councillor Hayne.

Yeah, I was also going to mention the reduction in accidents. I think this area is one of

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:32:41

worst in the country for just that side of Bradford and then moving across into Calderdale

and obviously we experience it in North Island and Shelf as well.

So very, very keen that we pursue that.

I mean I think it is worth just mentioning the cost as well because as new members, some

of the numbers here are quite startling, aren't they?

And I see over a million pounds for risk contingency and inflation.

So I don't know, it probably is ahead, isn't it?

but maybe at the end of schemes such as this,

whether officers could come back and say just exactly

how did that come out.

No, that's 2028, but it might be worth doing that.

I think that's a really great suggestion

that we'll take away because every scheme has risk

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:33:23

and contingency in it, and it would be useful to know

what was clawed back, and that was not used.

So it's a very good suggestion, thank you.

Okay, no further comments, so let's go to a vote.

So that we approve subject to conditions

that the taller lane junction improvement scheme proceeds through to decision point

four, the full business case, work commences on activity five to delivery, approves the

combined authority funding of 6 ,642 ,139 pounds to take the approval to 8 ,562 ,139 pounds of

which a further 255 ,000 development costs are released now to support costs associated

with land acquisition and procurement taking the total development costs approved from

1 ,920 ,000 to 2 ,175 ,000.

Release of the remaining 6 ,387 ,139 pounds is subject to conditions and approves that

future approvals are made in accordance with the assurance pathway approval route and tolerances

as set out in the business case summary attached to this report.

All those in favour, please raise your hand.

Thank you. No abstentions and no none against. Thank you.

So if we move backwards to our previous item, have we been able to answer Councillor Cohen's

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:34:49

question? Not as of yet as I understand it from the

team. But just to clarify, the question being asked

Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:34:59

was were those totals zero and in effect is that correct?

I'm conscious that you're referring to a note that hasn't formed part of the public PAC

and therefore isn't information that we're asking the committee to set a decision based

upon but what I think it is sensible to do given that it's been raised is to just confirm

that those numbers are zero because then it has no material impact on the decision that

the committee's been asked to take.

So why don't we just wait for that to come through and then we'll come back to it.

If everybody's happy, everybody's content.

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:35:41

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:36:34

Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council - 0:36:48

Thank you, Mayor.

In our local growth plan, we set up very clearly the barriers to growth in the region and skills,

the skills profile of our labour market.

It's one of the three main things that came out, the other two being connectivity and

investment.

And we went on then to set out our five priorities and again focus on regional learning and creativity

was one of those five.

And the approval that we're seeking,

so the approval we're seeking from you today speaks

particularly to that and it's evidenced in all the work

that we've done up till this point.

The paper you've got, which I'm taking as read,

sets out, so three strands.

There are many other things that we're working on

in our subsequent meetings who will come to you.

There are three strands that we've put in front of you today.

Work is continuing on one of those three

And we are seeking approvals on two of those three.

The first one is 150 ,000 pounds that we are seeking

approval for to test different ways in which we

can work with employers to incentivize them to make it

easier for hiring of people.

I'm sure you'll all agree with me, those of you who

have businesses or work closely with business know

better than I do, a lot of the challenges we've got in the

labour market right now sits on the demand side of the labour

market, not necessarily exclusively on the supply side.

And so this is looking to speak to that, particularly that the

number of entry -level roles and first opportunities for people

into employment seem to have reduced significantly over the

last few years.

We have tried some things in the past with varying

degrees of success, and so we do not want to come to

you with what we believe, you know, what we would

claim to be fully thought out and ready, fail -safe

set of approaches.

Instead, for this, we are seeking your approval to

test out a few things based on some learnings and

further input from business, and once we have

greater degree of confidence.

We will come back to you having worked up something

with, you know, to then investing.

So that's what this first, the first one is talking to,

is about us testing our different approaches and then

coming back to you.

That's 150 ,000 pounds.

The next one, strand two, is about careers.

And this is to enable us really begin to intervene at that

prevention end, that upstream end, before somebody

walks through the door needing employment support

and all the challenges that goes with that.

This builds on the careers blueprint.

That's the combined authority approved a few

months ago, and it allows us to work with the market,

with the industry, with schools, to make sure

there are careers advisors.

The careers advisors have the information they need.

Parents have the information they need.

Learners have the information they need,

especially before they hit the relevant transition

points, which is where they then need that

information to be able to make a decision.

The business case summary you've got sets out a raft

of things that we are looking to invest in.

This is in conjunction with funding and support from

central government from the KAERS Enterprise Company,

which part funds this, and we match it with funding

from the combined authority and our own resources.

It picks up work experience, it picks up resourcing,

it picks up clearing up pathways for people,

especially young people.

And it's part of what we hope to be able to bring to you,

which will be an integrated all -age careers service.

We're not quite there yet.

There's a lot that is happening.

But this will be one of the key building blocks.

So it allows us to be able to do that.

So those are the two things that we are seeking approval

from you on today.

The third of the three things in the paper is around needs

and youth unemployment.

We all know that it's a significant challenge

that we face.

The last numbers that came out suggest that we may be beginning

to reverse, you know, the upward trajectory,

but it's just one set of numbers so we can't be complacent.

And in any case, it's way too high still.

almost a million young people.

And so there's a lot of work that we're doing.

We're not ready yet to come to you with a full -blown

set of proposals.

And so this is in here just to mark the space and to

say we'll come back to you in the next few months

when we're ready.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Felix.

And what is really painful is I'm on the Alan

Milburn Commission.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:41:54

And the scale of the challenge is incredible.

Our young people are applying for hundreds of jobs using AI,

and AI is wiping them out of the interview chain,

and they don't ever get an interview, and they just give up.

So when you've got a million not in education, employment,

or training, and 400 ,000 of them aren't even in the benefits

system, how are these young people living?

And so we've got to find innovative ways to do this.

And we know that careers is over -centralised.

Centralised careers doesn't understand our businesses

or our opportunities.

So I've said to the Prime Minister,

we want to devolve careers to our regions.

And this is us getting ready for hopefully a positive outcome

from number 10 north, because we've got to get a grip of this

careers, but making it all age, having an escalator of

opportunity because so often people can be 25 or 30 and still

not found the career for them or the course for them.

So I think this is really important work,

but I'm really grateful that the thinking behind it is thorough.

Because we have, as Felix has said,

we have tried things in the past,

trying to incentivize businesses financially to take on young

people with poor mental health or a health condition.

They are waiting for the government.

their government scheme where they take on healthy young people who are just not in work.

So it's a tough nut to crack. So I'm grateful for the thinking behind it.

It's a really interesting topic. I'm sure Councillors will have comments on this.

Councillor Pinder, probably the youngest Councillor in the room today.

so you can speak very vividly.

Just do a good job not looking geriatric.

Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council - 0:43:50

Thank you, Mayor.

The report itself is sort of silent on employment

in West Yorkshire, which is a significant challenge

at the minute with funding.

The funding is due to end in March 2027.

Has there been any consideration around that,

considering the employment infrastructure

that it delivers for Wakefield?

Thank you.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:44:11

And as members of the investment board,

we're always thinking beyond our own borders.

It's for the whole of our region, isn't it?

But it's a very good question.

Felix.

Felix Nwando -Wongwe.

Thanks, Mary.

And thank you for the question.

Really important.

That is at the very top of our considerations

at the moment, but that is also why that third strand

we haven't come back to you today on.

This funding we get from government is specifically

Particularly for careers, it obviously does not do that.

Not yet anyway.

We've not asked it to.

So that is not what that does.

But the assurance I can give you is that, one, we know that employment with the structure

is an important part of the infrastructure that we've got.

Two, there is a review that is underway that all the five districts are a key part of and

And it's co chaired by the chief exec of Coderdale Council.

And it will report in the next month or two.

We need to wait for that to report.

So we have a good sense of how we are adding value.

We currently invest 7 million pounds a year into employment at West Yorkshire.

Employment and unemployment stats are no different to other places that do not do that.

So we need to understand exactly how we are and where we are adding value.

That is not to say Employment West Yorkshire is not important.

Of course, it's absolutely crucial to what we do.

But we need to get a better understanding of where and how

we are adding value so we know how we invest in the future.

At the same time, the government is revamping the job centres

into a new jobs and career service.

We know that currently as we are,

job centres refer quite a bit into Employment West Yorkshire.

We need to make sure that all sides are talking to each other

so that we do not duplicate and waste the little,

you know, resource that we've got.

And so we cannot commit at this point until we've been able to

we are in a position where we have a really good understanding

of that.

So we fully expect to be able to do that,

but we all need to work together to make sure we are at the point

where we understand all of these and how they interact.

Thirdly, in the government cabinet statement that came out

recently on devolution, it's a clear lining there about

evolving employment supports to combined authorities.

We are in the throes of our discussions with DWP about

what that means.

What even does employment support mean?

And what is in scope?

It will be a bit too early to therefore commit to something

when we know that there's a sea change coming.

So, we need to get a better understanding of what

that means.

And finally, there are a set of government programmes that

are being commissioned or just on the cusp of being

commissioned.

And we are engaged like the Youth Jobs Guarantee,

which local authorities together have bid for.

We are in conversation with central government about

whether they are going ahead or not.

And if they are going ahead, that will fund,

or at least part fund, employment

with the Yorkshire.

As you know, we currently fund that with a cocktail

of funds, which is not ideal because we're just

pulling various programmes from government and make it

work here locally.

What we're trying to do is to move away from the programme

led way in which we behave and instead have a more

integrated and holistic view of the employment support

world and provide the necessary resource

into that system.

Until we get to the right space with central government

on those conversations, it will be premature for us to

come here and be definitive on this is what employment

structure is going to look like, this is what we're

going to put in, et cetera.

The commitment I can make to you is that this is at the top of our list.

We're discussing it tomorrow at direct access development.

We will make sure that the right level of funding goes in and we can give you the guarantees

that this is adding value in the system in a way that joins everything up.

And it joins it up at the West Yorkshire level because West Yorkshire is a functional economic

area with over 90 % of the people who live here also working here.

But it doesn't mean that everything is symmetrical within West Yorkshire.

in parts of our region, we have significant supply

but not enough demand.

And currently, the way we work is such that we are

trying artificially to match supply to demand even

when demand does not exist.

We need to work at a West Yorkshire level so that we

are matching that and matching it with our

transport responsibilities and our ability so that we

can actually move people across to access

the opportunity.

I say all of that just to say there's a lot of work

going on.

It's incredibly important to us.

That is not what this paper is talking about.

We will come back to you hopefully very soon when we have a fully formed group doing this.

Thank you for that thorough reply, Felix.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:49:02

And just to also reassure you that the work in the innovative work around the Pathfinder

in Wakefield, I was speaking to another Wakefield Councillor and they were saying that the young

people have really benefited from that.

It was a new relationship with DWP where we used Wakefield as an example.

and that it's been going on two years.

It hasn't given us everything we wanted,

but there was some really good takeaways from it.

So be reassured across our region.

This is so important to us.

If we're going to grow the economy and bring hope

and opportunity back to every postcode,

we've got to make sure that everybody has the skills

that they need.

But thank you for raising that.

Councillor Ariff.

As you know, this is something that I actually discussed earlier

Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council - 0:49:47

with the Minister, particularly in the Leeds context.

we've got some challenges around need and so this investment from my

perspective is really welcome and it supports our priorities around youth

opportunity workforce development and reducing disengagement in terms of

education and employment and from our perspective you know as I say completely

welcome this paper and thank you as ever Felix for going in detail

councillor Eglin. Thank you Mayor just just want to make two points one's a bit

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:50:15

The first quick point is if we do want young people to get on

the ladder, we have to de -risk for businesses.

I've worked in business all my life.

You need to make it cheaper to employ them, first of all,

because they're not that productive when they start work.

And the way you do that is you reduce the minimum wage for

them and you also reduce NI.

They're the simple reasons rather than all

these training schemes.

Anyway, that aside, I spoke to the I took advice from the officers at Bradford on this

one, and they were a little bit confused by the paper, to be honest.

They couldn't figure out the numbers for a start.

And they had particular concerns with EWY, picking up on what Matthew said.

I just want to kind of it will be kind of reading almost verbatim what they've told

me, okay?

Okay?

So we do support, okay, the proposed investment for all career ages and de -risking hiring,

okay?

However, the proposals now before the investment board is materially different from the position

discussed at the design authority.

The paper seeks agreement to programme investments while deferring consideration of employment

West Yorkshire, EWI.

At design authority, the remaining region of learning and creativity allocation was

not presented simply as programme funding.

It was discussed as part of a wider strategic approach to implementing the ROLC.

And as a potential means of maintaining EWY, Employment West Yorkshire, should no alternative

long -term funding solution emerge.

EWI faces a funding cliff edge from April 27.

With no funding currently secured beyond that point,

we will be laying off people.

At design authority, and we're losing skills,

at design authority local authorities understood that

remaining 6 .65 million was not to be held solely for

future programme investments, rather it formed part of a

wider implementation approach of ROLC,

Preserving the strategic option of sustaining employment of West

Yorkshire should no alternative funding solution be identified.

Only if that risk was mitigated would the funding be available

for investment in new programme activity.

So while supporting the proposed investments,

Bradford view is that securing and future of EWI remains the

immediate strategic priority.

EWI provides the infrastructure through the local authorities

delivering employment and skills activity,

including employer engagement, partnership, management,

local intelligence, and front line delivery capacity.

In Bradford, this risks, this is a risk to Skills House,

which is very useful.

Okay, so at this stage, I don't think I could support this until

we get reassurances on EWI.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Kaslep.

The challenge is, as Felix has laid out, that we are waiting

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:53:20

for government to devolve the funding.

So to tie our hands in a situation that is evolving

is incredibly difficult.

And let me tell you how much I love Skillz House.

And when Alan Milburn came to our region, we had a visit

there to show how Bradford were bringing down the

percentage of NEETs in their region spectacularly,

particularly in comparison to LEEDs.

However, their challenges, they don't have the jobs.

So they have young people who are on training programmes or on

internships or whatever, but those long -term jobs aren't there.

So it's a different intervention that needs to happen in Bradford.

But this is a challenging landscape when so much is changing.

But I wonder, Felix, if you could maybe answer the

technical element.

I keep not pressing my button.

I'm so sorry.

I keep insisting everybody else does.

Apologies.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll gladly respond to that.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:54:25

It's a bit like we try to deal with a huge problem

with different facets.

Employment was the option as it's currently set out.

Deals with the challenge, if you think of it in terms

of a spectrum, it deals with a challenge as it gets to this

point where somebody is out of work or is economically inactive

so it's not even looking for a job.

But not just that.

Skills House is brilliant, we all agree.

It doesn't deal with the volume that is on the market.

The volume is dealt with by Job Centre Plus.

They do all the triaging.

They do all the work that's needed,

with better establishment, all of that.

And then there is cross -referral.

They then refer to skill cells when somebody needs x or y,

and the work coach goes over a certain number of hours

and all of that stuff.

That's really important work.

But that happens here.

What's in front of us today happens here.

And the job is to make sure that we can stem the tide.

If we only focus on this, and we don't deal with this,

we're on a hiding to nothing, and that is what we've been doing.

Skills House is brilliant, I say again.

But Bradford's unemployment is second in the country,

second only to Birmingham, which has half

of Bradford's population.

The unemployment quantum in Bradford is second only to

Birmingham, which has half of Bradford's population.

So even though our neat numbers are brilliant in Bradford,

not that great in Leeds, unemployment is not that good.

What is in front of you today is to enable us deal with some of

these challenges upstream, to make sure young people get

access to all the very, very expensive, a lot more expensive.

We are not saying we won't do this.

We're just saying right now we don't have all the information in front of us to be able

to give you that guarantee.

But we are assuring you that we will deal with this.

It's just not today.

Because we don't have the information.

There are too many things happening.

It presupposes that the funding that we are asking you to

approve for this can be used for employment

with Yorkshire.

Two -thirds of it cannot.

There's a million pounds circa that comes from CEC that is only

for careers funding.

We can only access that million pounds if we match it with our

million pounds.

We are asking you for almost three million pounds funding.

So really what we are adding to it is just another 900 ,000 or so.

Employment to a steel auction costs 7 million pounds a year.

Even if we don't do this, that will not touch the sight of what's needed for employment

to a steel auction.

It will not even get closed.

It's 7 million pounds, we are adding about 900 ,000.

If we don't do this, we need to return the 1 million pounds back to government, and then

we need to find something else to do with the remaining 1 million.

and then it does not fund this because this is dedicated

carriers funding.

So the only thing that comes into play then is the

150 ,000.

Again, it doesn't touch this in terms of the

quantum that is needed.

The reassurance I'm giving you, and we don't have time

for me to go into the detail, employment was

still used to be funded by shared prosperity fund.

Before then, it was European funding.

Right now, we're using a cocktail of funds from

trailblazers and accelerators and some gainshare

and all of that to go into it.

Right now, as I speak to you, we already given local authorities

millions of pounds for Connect to Work, which goes into this.

We're going to come to you hopefully in the next,

actually, if already provide approval for it,

for WorkWell, 10 million pounds over three years.

It will go into employment with the Yorkshire -related stuff.

We are hoping with government that the trouble is that

will be expanded, extended.

We are, you know, so I am hoping that in the next meeting or two

we will be able to come to you with funding for

employment with the auction.

That is not in scope for this, though.

So, of course, this is your decision.

You know, you can say you fund this or you don't fund

this, that's fine.

But the fact is, if we say no to this,

this money does not automatically go to

employment with this.

A little bit might.

It doesn't even begin to touch the size of what's needed.

But there is work underway to resolve that challenge.

We are completely alive to that.

We know we need to provide the reassurance needed for

this because this is really important.

There is a fundamental thing at the heart of this, though,

really fundamental.

The combined authority together decided to put funding towards

employment towards Yorkshire.

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:59:36

We cannot continue to fund it because we have funded it

before, that would be my suggestion as an officer.

We need the evidence to back it, and that is the work

we are doing.

As I said at the beginning, it's great that we have infrastructure

like this, but places that do not have it have the same or

better unemployment numbers than us.

Places that do not have employment to a stereotype

infrastructure have employment numbers that are the same or

better than us.

So we cannot take it for granted that what we're doing

is changing the dial.

We need the evidence that I can bring to you that says,

actually, this is what we're doing and it's making a

difference here, and this is why we need to continue

to fund it.

And right now, what we have is anecdotal.

And the work we are doing is to make sure we can give

you better information.

So, yes, inflammatory stress is vital.

It's great.

We will be able to come to you hopefully in the next

meeting or two with something that allows us

to be clear about how we fund it.

Thank you.

Felix, thank you.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:00:41

That was really clear.

And as leaders in your communities, you know that

If you keep on doing the same stuff but getting the same

results, you know, if you don't change anything,

you're not going to get better results.

And I didn't know that about Birmingham,

and that's pretty shocking.

But what we're trying to do here is to understand how we create

more jobs for the young people of Bradford, Wakefield,

Coledale, Kirklees, and Leeds.

Because what we're doing, what is happening in the economy is

not serving our young people well.

And if all of the money and the interventions are at the downstream, how on earth are we

going to change the outcomes for our young people who are already leaving school, going

into unemployment, lack of training and so on.

So that has been really, really helpful and thank you for your patience taking a bit of

time going through that explanation.

But Councillor Hay, I think you wanted to come in.

Councillor Cohen.

Oh, sorry.

Councillor Falstead, you were next.

Councillor Filstead and then Councillor Haynes.

Thank you Mayor.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:01:51

It's only a quickie Felix because I've picked up on a couple of things that you've said.

Cllr Bob Felstead Chair - Scrutiny Committee - 1:01:54

So this is kind of a suck it and see trial to begin with isn't it to find the direction

of travel.

So I've always found and I've spoken about this morning that one size doesn't fit all.

So and you actually said Goodman had originally driven this programme and it's now being handed

down to the combined authority to deliver the programme. But kind of the elephant in

the room for me is that if you speak to Councillor Eglin or Councillor Pinder sat next to me

and do two different local authorities, they'll both have vastly different challenges to face.

So is part of this new approach going to take on board the model of one size fits all or

going to look at things at local authority level.

Thank you.

Felix.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:02:47

Thank you.

Really good question.

We had a programme called Graduates with West Yorkshire.

It was focused on supporting SMEs

to get access to graduates.

And we put that out because small businesses were

telling us they would like to employ graduates,

But, you know, they don't have the big HR resourcing,

and there's a lot of paperwork, and it's so challenging.

They need support to be able to do it.

So we put a programme together.

We went out on the back of that evidence.

And we're hoping to be able to place, you know,

several hundreds, maybe even a thousand graduates.

And definitely around that number came to us wanting

to go through the process.

And we took them through assessment centres,

and the CVs and all that and got them ready.

Unfortunately, in the end, we placed, it's just closing,

and we placed less than 100.

I don't have the exact number, but we placed less

than 100 graduates.

And that's because the sun has shifted, and employers

were saying, it's not that anymore, it's this, and it's

that, and it's that, and this is why we can't do it,

and this is why we can't do it.

Some of it is what you were saying about the cost,

And we can have a conversation about minimum

wage and all that, but cost was a key part of it.

So what we're trying to do is, for the 150 ,000 pounds,

is simply to test a few of the things that have come

out, and it may be place specific, it may be sector

specific, but just to test what will work, what

employers, what will shift the dial for employers to

be able to put some more entry level rules out,

especially entry -level roles.

But we're doing that in a fairly complex environment

because, you know, the jobs guarantee from government

is also incentive -led, paying 2 ,000, 3 ,000 pounds

to employers to take on young people.

There are different things going on.

We've got something out there for economic inactivity.

We just need to see what is working and what has

the potential, and then we'll come to you.

So it's possible that there might be a place -specific

thing.

We've tried place -specific things with transport

access and others before.

We don't know yet.

So this is just to allow us that space to be able to

just test things out and then come back to you with

a bit more confidence.

Thank you so much, Felix.

And certainly for me, we need to be evidence -led.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:05:18

And, you know, also innovation is about letting

things go that don't work and that haven't given us

the sea change that we're looking for and to give

that optimism to our young people.

So this is 150 ,000 to do that work to find out what is going

to be really impactful.

And as Councillor Eglin said, whether that is reducing us

paying the national insurance, is that what businesses want?

I think it's going to be really important for us to understand

using data where our decision points are.

So, Councillor Payne and then Councillor Courtney.

Cllr Cllr Mike Payne Calderdale Council - 1:06:06

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to Felix for submitting what I think is a great paper and the most important paper today.

And for your passion also in the way that you've presented it, because I think anything we can do to invest in young people

and getting young people into employment is really first class.

And I say that as probably the oldest person in the room, sitting opposite the youngest.

You don't look it.

Thank you very much.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:06:32

Cllr Cllr Mike Payne Calderdale Council - 1:06:33

Yeah, three things quickly.

I think if we speak to businesses, I've spent most of my life in HR about developing people.

One of the things for businesses is the cost of employing people

and making it easy for businesses to take people on.

I'm not too sure about what Councillor Eggleston said about reducing the national wage.

I wouldn't be in favour of that, but certainly if I had my way I would abolish NI altogether.

As a third level of tax, I think it's very short -sighted and anything we can do to even

towards reducing it or abolishing it would be great.

I mean Andy's a friend but we don't like him.

I haven't got that part. The second thing I think is what I would refer to as multi -tiered

recruitment. Recruitment for businesses is not about just taking graduates in from university,

it's about taking in school leavers at a very young age who don't really know what they

want to do in terms of the world of work. It's about apprenticeships, it's a whole range

of things that we've got to encourage employers and people to think about their development.

When I was young at school I wanted to be a doctor because I wanted people to call me

Dr Payne because I thought that would be a very good bedside manner.

We'll call you Dr. Fink.

But I don't know if anybody, if we've been tracking the ITV programme, which will be 70 up,

about the tracking of young people. It started as 7 up, didn't it?

And it's a really fantastic documentary on the development of young people

and what they wanted to be when they were at school and where they are now at the age of 70.

I think the only person that actually became what they wanted to be was somebody who wanted

to be a bus driver, which says a lot about the aspiration to be a bus driver.

So people do need help.

They need help in career planning, don't they?

And finally, what I would say is the money that's being spent here, I would have a plea

that the majority of this money to go towards helping young people, not to go

towards consultants writing a report which tells us probably what we we

already know if we talk to businesses about why they're not employing people

it's very evident what it is. The majority of it is to do with cost and ease of

entry so a plea that this money goes to the people who deserve it and I do see

here that you've mentioned, yes, the money being spent with schools, colleges, young

people and employers. So that's great. Thank you very much.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:09:34

Thank you, Doctor. Excellent. Councillor Conlon.

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:09:43

Thank you very much. Just a couple of points. One, I'm very pleased to see the continuation

funding for the Youth Voice, because speaking to young people is really important and actually

So, I think it's really important that we're

making sure that we are not just listening to them but

actually involving them in the research that needs to happen

is a really important point.

And just a very quick question on that is about are we making

sure that there are care experienced people's voices

that we're getting, because obviously all of us are

corporate parents and those of you who know me know that I have

a passion around making sure that we are really taking that

at least some support because we know that actually outcomes for people who are care -experienced

can be very sadly very poor.

And the other thing is just about that, looking at those, I know that some of this funding

is around grants for, so in the careers hub some of this is funding around grants for

voluntary organisations and in smaller settings, and it's actually that those people out in

communities who really can listen to, know the young people, know the jobs that are around

there. So it's really important that we get young people into the jobs out of their area

as well, but actually some of those first steps might be the local jobs working locally.

So I really, and I know for example, C &K Careers, their Nexus programme, some of the children,

some of the young people who have really struggled, so it's great to see as well people in alternative

of provision settings, having some opportunities, because often again, they're not the young

people who often get the break, so it's great to see some of that in there as well, so thank

you.

Lovely, thank you. Just on the careers experience young people, and now I come to Councillor

Cone.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:11:32

I'm fairly certain that that is absolutely part of this. If it's not, it will be, but

yes, sure, thank you.

Councillor Cone.

Thank you so much Felix. I think you put in a lot of work and I second the comments on

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:11:46

passion. There's no two ways about it and I remember we talked at the pre -meeting as

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 1:11:50

well. Very passionate about it. I think this is an extremely hard problem to solve. And

I think with the best will in the world, a very large sum of money would make a very

small difference. I am in the fortunate position for many years now of being a mentor to upcoming

young professionals and I have the great vicarious pleasure of seeing some of them now 15 years

on go on to some very successful careers and opportunities indeed. Unfortunately none of

them in this country I might add but that's not necessarily any particular correlation.

I have hired in my career many people and I've hired people who don't traditionally

fit. In fact I very much believe it's very important to look beyond fit which is why

the AI recruitment practises at the moment are so terrible for businesses as well as

because they overemphasise fit.

Culturally, we've overemphasised

having a qualification as well.

Mostly, it's a de -risking measure as a business

because then you can say,

well, they were qualified or they had this.

Not my fault we got the wrong person

who smashed up the office or whatever it was.

But it is a tough, tough problem.

Britain has become an extremely expensive place

to take a risk on someone.

I would no longer, in a company I would work for,

be able to advocate for some of the people I've hired.

In fact, in my own area, which is technology and software,

I would find it extremely rare for any business,

even if I'm based in Britain, to now hire under 25s in Britain

in software.

The skills are there.

The abilities are there.

The attitude and the culture is not, and the price is too high.

In fact, depending what that company wants

would be in other places.

If the money source is for a more legacy software business

who's looking to cut staffing costs,

but keep it in a western time zone, they go to Portugal.

If it's for innovation, they go to India.

I had amazing successes hiring young graduates in India.

They will work their whatnots off, they get on well,

they work as a team, and they deliver.

And they're a pleasure to work with.

Spent time out there doing it and building

development centres.

If you're looking for back office automation,

you go to Central Europe or slightly further east,

although Ukraine is now unfortunately off the market.

for them, not for us, but for them, which is sad. This is a very tough problem. I can

no longer advocate to hire under 25s in the UK in the businesses I work for that are in

the SME sector between 35 to 400 sized companies. The secondary problem they have, going back

to the careers and the graduates, and I think this may explain some of where you were.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:14:28

Councillor, I'm so sorry, just for a matter of time, if you just get to the point, thank

you so much.

The point is this is hard.

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 1:14:31

So the point is here, I'm not sure it's worth the spending money on de -risking hiring.

I think it's well beyond the ability of us locally to do anything about it.

I can understand doing a study, but I can't think as much we can do, even if we gave big

subsidies.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:14:50

You won't be surprised to know that I do disagree, certainly around our young people and their

attitude.

And here in Leeds, for example, as the Northern Square Mile,

we are a magnet for unicorns, for the Bank of England is

expanding, the wealth fund, the FCA, PEXA, Go Cardless.

They're here because of our talent.

And we have the largest cluster of HE and FE outside of London

in the country.

and that's why we are a magnet for our young people.

And I am hopeful and optimistic about the talent and the attitude

and approach of our young people.

The question is they've not been served correctly,

and I do think AI recruitment is not doing anybody any favours.

So I will agree with you on that point,

but we have a different approach to the world maybe.

Any further comments?

Councillor Hay, did you want to come in?

Okay, thank you.

Okay, that was a very robust conversation,

And I'm getting to a number of you in great detail and of your view on the world and your

opinions.

So it's been a real pleasure the last 20 minutes.

So thank you.

Okie doke.

Let's go to the approvals.

So the recommendations for this scheme are presented in two parts.

The first set of recommendations are subject to conditions.

For the Region of Learning and Creativity, strand two, the Investment Board subject to

Conditions 1, approves that the region of learning and creativity

scheme proceeds through decision point 2 to 4,

and work commences on activity 5 on delivery.

2, approves the combined authorities funding of 2 ,982 ,750

pounds, taking the total amount to 3 ,563 ,345 pounds.

The estimated total scheme cost is currently

£4 ,548 ,345 and approves that future approvals are made

in accordance with the assurance pathway,

approval route and tolerances as set out in the business case

summary attached to this report.

And the second set of recommendations,

which are not subject to conditions for the region

of learning and creativity strand two,

The Investment Board, one, approves development funding

of 50 ,000 pound for the targeted work experience

programme in order to progress the activity to

decision point two to four, the business

justification case.

And two, approves development funding of

150 ,000 in order to progress the region of

learning and creativity strand one, scheme to

decision point two to four, the business

justification case.

I'll take a breath.

and then if we could take a vote on the recommendations.

All those in favour, please raise your hand.

Thank you.

All those against, thank you.

And all those abstentions, thank you.

That's fantastic.

The recommendations have been carried.

So let's go back in time to our previous approval, which was, if you could tell me the number,

Ben.

From the...

The Brunswick Street footpath.

No? Indeed. It is that one? Okie doke. If you could give us the information regarding

the zero amount. Thank you. I'm going to pass straight to Simon who's got the answer. Simon,

Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:18:20

thank you. So the question related to the breakdown of overall scheme costs that was

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:18:24

included in supplementary background information that had been requested by members that isn't

in the public pack. Councillor Crowe queried why there was a row entry for NPG supply being

shown as zero. So for those aren't aware, NPG refers to northern power grids and

they're responsible for providing new electricity connexions where they're

required. I'm advised that early stages in the design process a new

electricity connexion was anticipated as being necessary, so a cost for that

was included in the original build -up. As part of the design development process,

a lower cost solution has been identified involving solar -powered light

installations. So the cost shown against the NPG row was set to zero but the row

was retained for transparency. So the table included in the supplementary background information

is therefore correct. But given the question that was raised by the Member relates specifically

to that supplementary background information, we will publish this as an annex to the paper

after today's meeting.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:19:22

Thank you, that's a very good solution. Thank you so much. Okie doke, so let's take a vote

on those recommendations now we have that clarity and that detail around that number.

So, for the Brunswick Street footpath improvement scheme,

the investment board with reference to 4 .36 and 4 .37

in the report, approves that the Brunswick Street footpath

improvement scheme proceed through decision point 2 to 4,

the business justification case, to activity to delivery.

Two, approves the combined authorities funding of

428 ,694 pounds, taking the total amount to 512 ,694 pounds.

The total scheme cost is 512 ,694 pounds.

Three, approves that future approvals are made in accordance with the assurance pathway,

approval routes and tolerances as set out in the business case summary attached to the

report.

All those in favour, please raise your hand.

Thank you.

non -against and no abstentions.

Thank you.

That was definitely worth doing.

Thank you so much for that question in the first instance.

Okey -dokey.

So let's move on.

Felix, it's definitely your day to number nine,

economic development.

This relates to two schemes under the economic development

theme and supports the delivery of our local growth plan.

The first is the Made Smarter scheme,

which is supporting the growth of professional and business

services sector in the region, one of our, locally,

one of our strongest areas for growth.

And the scheme is designed to help SMEs to adopt new

digital technologies, improve productivity,

strengthen leadership capability,

and build those long -term digital resilience.

Felix, if you could just talk us through it.

It has no specific local authority rep on this,

does it?

No, it's for the whole region.

Thank you so much.

Over to you, Felix.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll take them in turn, as you say.

But for the first one on Made Smarter for the

Professional Business Services, I referred to the

work we did on the Lookout Growth Plan earlier on and

the barriers there.

The five priorities that we agreed, one of the five was

about providing and supporting some specific

sectors that, according to the evidence, are most

likely to grow and to provide the growth that we

need in our region.

So we identified those six.

Professional and business services was one of those.

We, at the time, sort of grouped it with financial

services, but in central government, they're

actually two separate sectors or areas of focus.

And financial services sits with the Treasury and PBS

assets with DBT or as it was, the best as it is now.

We don't yet have the funding for this.

We've come to you like we did last time.

We're expecting the funding to come through in the next month or so.

And if you are minded to approve, you will then be able to move immediately without having

to wait for the next meeting to seek your approval.

There is a programme already underway, which you may have

heard of already, which, you know, same name, Made Smarter,

but that focuses on manufacturing.

And it's in West Yorkshire, it's housed in South Yorkshire

Combined Authority.

They work on all our behalf.

We've got one or two people seconded in into my team

who focus on that.

The job is really to go out to manufacturing businesses,

have conversations with them, understand what the need is,

especially capital investment and innovation that they are

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:23:12

working on have a diagnostic and support them to be able to,

you know, get whatever investments they need.

If that conversation gets to a point where specific investment

is needed and is eligible, then often there's an opportunity

then through this programme for us to make a part payment towards

9 Economic Development

that investment in the form of a grant.

That is the model the government has developed.

We didn't develop that.

That is a model the government has developed,

and so that is what this will follow.

And the focus is on, as I said, professional

and business services sector.

We will therefore run this on behalf of the rest

of Yorkshire and Humber over the next three years.

It will be housed here because the sector

is biggest here.

And the model is more or less similar

to what I have said.

The focus will be on adoption of tech.

It could be AI, doesn't have to be exclusively so,

but adoption of tech into this sector with a view to

growing productivity.

The evidence is quite clear.

Nobel Laureates have written about this.

Paul Krugman is probably the most popular with the

most famous line on this.

If you want to grow productivity,

our way home is through innovation.

And that is how we get money into people's pockets to have

greater prosperity.

So this sits squarely in the sector specific work that we are

doing in this sector.

If we are successful, we will then be able to get the resource

we need to support this sector.

So that is what this particular one is talking about.

The next one is on energy transition and security.

A few months ago, the combined authority approved

our strategy for this sector.

It focuses on how we work with business, the need to

work with businesses to address one of the key

pain points.

We've had a really good conversation a little while

ago on employment and skills and some of the

challenges there.

Businesses very consistently talk about the

cost of energy and how that affects their

competitiveness or lack thereof.

This gives us the opportunity to work with

businesses to do that.

And it works on three layers.

The first layer is about providing support for

all businesses.

So again, going back to the local growth plan,

there was a particular one of our three,

five priorities was on how we work with the need to

work with all businesses to enable all businesses to

be successful.

And that is what this speaks to.

So it's not talking to a particular sector

or a particular place.

So the first layer is to enable us to provide all the information

or as much information as possible in one place,

and this will be housed in our growth hub website.

So that all businesses in West Yorkshire who face this

challenge can have access to all the information,

all the resources they need to be able to act and to reduce

their energy costs and to have greater resilience when it comes

to energy.

The second layer is then to enable us to have the resource

we need to be able to work with groups of businesses.

It will largely be manufacturing, we believe,

to have a higher intensive level of support,

high intensity support to groups of businesses

who are high energy users.

This could be glass manufacturers in Wakefield.

This could be businesses, engineering businesses

in Huddersfield or Calderdale, chemicals businesses in Leeds.

High intensive energy users work with them very closely

to identify where opportunities might be for

them to be able to reduce their energy bills to secure

energy that is more resilient and more

competitive for them.

The final bit is to enable us to work in clusters where

businesses are grouped in certain physical locations

and to explore again how we can work with them to help

bring down their energy bills.

So it could be collective buying schemes like we're doing

with housing, but there might be other ways of doing this.

Because again, if they purchase collectively,

whether it's solar panels or wind or other forms of energy,

they are able to access prices that are more favourable.

So there are three layers of support that are being

proposed here.

This, unlike the first one, we are not proposing to have

a grant scheme at the end of this.

We've done that before and we've learned from that.

This is to actually work with businesses to identify the benefits of businesses themselves,

see the need to invest in it and to access other forms of investment or support that

might be out there.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much Felix.

So let's take the first one, the Made Smarter Professional and Business Services.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:28:08

So this is accountants, architects, it's all across professional and business services

that we actually don't have as high a numbers as we should have in our region

which supports business is my understanding.

We have a lot of those businesses we are I would say overrepresented we are but we are one of the strongest in the country

but our support to those businesses up to this point is not being as strong as it could be and this will help us.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:28:39

Any comments on that particular item about Made Smarter? Yes, Councillor Haynes.

Yes, so just I think we've had one discussion about this Felix.

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 1:28:45

So it's a 9 million spend and we're affecting roughly 300 businesses, which is, I've got

the calculator back out and I think it's 30 ,000 pounds per business.

And again, you know, these numbers are significant.

Can you just give us a balance, and I know you may not know yet, about how much the spend

is in that initial engagement and how much is actually going to fund, you know, help

businesses to change.

Thank you.

I don't have the specific numbers here.

I can provide that to you.

But the grant element, these will be small grants

in the very low single digit thousands to businesses,

depending on what is needed.

The bulk of the support will be on the diagnostics and the

broader support that a business might need to unearth what the

opportunities might look like and how they can actually take

whatever innovation they've got or ideas they've got through to

the point where they can actually take it to market.

It's only if and when some of them, potentially up to 300,

get to the stage where grants might be needed.

So the number of businesses that will be supported will be much

greater than that, but it will be a funnel.

and if a few of them might then get to the end where there might be some funding needed.

Thank you so much. Yes, Councillor Cone.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:30:17

Thank you Felix for the presentation. I know we discussed this briefly at the free meeting.

For Gather Camp at People's Benefit here, I'm a strong cynic of grant -based funding

to businesses. I've been involved myself and what I've found over many years is it doesn't

Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council - 1:30:31

go to those that need it for all sorts of difficult reasons. They're very difficult

schemes to run.

My concern is always is what we'll have two types of organisations that I'm rather going

to cynically call the parasite consultant and the zombie business, and I've come across

both.

The zombie business is one I've had unfortunately a bit too close a call with over the years

who basically exist off professional grant writing applications.

The parasite consultant is the one who tends to support them.

That's not to say there aren't very serious people.

I have a good friend who's now passed, whose business wasn't initially grant funded.

The challenge I have here with the organisations we're targeting is this is not a sector to

whom a lack of digital productivity is an impediment to doing business.

Accountants fees and the likes are far in excess of their costs of paper and manual

processes.

The second problem, but having said that, there is a possibility we don't need to do

it for that sector.

The making tax difficult changes that are coming in right now are forcing the vast majority

of businesses of this type to actually go digital for the very first time.

And whilst we can have very controversial views on that, it actually is turning out

to be a significant mover.

So that's my concern on that.

On the energy security side, I think I fully support most of what you want to do.

I mentioned to Felix at the meeting a concern that several local manufacturers have raised

with me, which is the lack of access to 15KV supplies.

One of the biggest problems small manufacturers have in my area of the district is there's

very few 15KV points.

So that would be something for the collaborative side

if we'd like to do that.

It's a big challenge.

It's a challenge even for Airedale Hospital.

They can't get a second 15KV supply,

so they're not going to have one,

even though they really should have it

for a major facility.

This is a national challenge,

but it particularly is impacting small businesses.

It means they can't move and relocate to our area

or move from smaller premises.

Thank you so much.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:32:23

All good points well made,

and we will definitely take them on board.

Anything you want to add, Felix?

Thanks, Mayor.

I suppose all I was going to say was, one, this is a pilot.

This is a government pilot.

My understanding is it's a three -year pilot.

We'll be able to make changes after year one,

so we'll see how it goes.

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:32:43

And if we need to make those changes, then we will do that.

Secondly, I completely agree with you on some of the

challenges around grants and its effectiveness and all of that, as I said to you privately,

if we had designed it ourselves from scratch, it might look a little bit different.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:33:05

Thank you. Yes, Councillor Eglin.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I just find it quite amazing, Ray, that we're kind of thinking

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 1:33:14

about small, medium -sized enterprises in the business and technology sector that need advice

from maybe another small SME.

It is advice that this is providing principally.

And who is going to be delivering this and how will

they be chosen, the companies that are delivering this?

And it's very similar to the regard to the second energy

transition security.

Is that just advice we're providing again?

and if companies at this sort of level need this sort of advice from a public body or

from a public body commissioned third parties, I don't think there's much hope for them.

We can't be too bleak in this committee. Felix?

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:34:08

Thank you, Mayor. If I've understood correctly, on the first one, the question is who is the

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:34:18

Who are we going to commission to deliver this?

Yeah.

So we've not, based on if we get approval today,

there's a commissioning process that will follow.

We are engaging with partners in the market.

We are particularly considering one of our universities

because they are really well connected into the system,

and they are lined up to deliver something similar,

So there's an opportunity for us to grow it,

but we are looking at those options

and we'll see where we get to.

There's no decisions have been made.

We will commission and we will get the best provider

out there.

There's a second question around advice.

There is advice as a key part of this.

There is some signposting and some referral.

There is making resources available.

There's diagnostics and using various tools that is out

there based on a particular business's circumstances to be

able to identify what opportunities might be

to do this.

It's fair to say that there are bits of this that exist in

different places, but it's very difficult to have everything

together in one place.

And that is what we're trying to do,

especially for small businesses that may not, you know,

be able to get access to everything as easily.

We're trying to make sure all the information that they might

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:35:57

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:36:09

and the first time to tell that storey of the

that will there be some, obviously there will be monitoring of that because the government

will be wanting you to monitor all the KPIs and everything, but it would be really useful

to get some feedback on how, at different points, how that's going in terms of the

target numbers and stuff.

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:36:39

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:38:12

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:38:53

While we await the government's additional funding for LVEPs around the country.

Thank you so much Nicky for keeping me on point with regarding to my microphone Felix.

Thank you Mayor.

As you just said this focus is on our vista economy.

We have one of the fastest growing in the country and we've got the potential to grow

even more.

So for the last year or two, we've provided some funding

to set up our partnership.

It's recognised by Visit Britain,

and it allows us to have in one space all the key partners

in the ecosystem to think through what

we need to grow this sector.

And some really brilliant things have gone on.

If you've not seen the new What's On website

that we've put out, Explore West Yorkshire,

it's really, really making a lot of difference

to people out there.

We fund the secretariat's function for this,

and it's based situated at the ECT Council.

When we set this up, a lot of the thinking was based on

sort of getting this to a point where it would be

self -sustaining with a subscription model with

partners in the system.

But because of conversations going on

currently around the overnight fiscal levy,

there's an opportunity, if that happens,

for us to be able to fund it through there.

So what this does is to give us that bridge to make

sure there isn't a cliff edge.

We have that support and that sector is able to grow.

The chair of the, the co -chairs of that sector

sit on our business board.

So it's well integrated with the rest of the businesses

and the key sectors that we are focusing on in the region.

It gives us the resource we need to continue to focus

on that area and to grow that which underpins,

you know, key outcomes around quality of life,

participation, but also the creative businesses

in that space.

So we are hopeful that with this, over time, we'll have a more sustained or sustainable

way of funding it.

But this ensures, as I said, that there is no cliff edge.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Felix.

And I'm so proud of our assets that we have across our region, whether that's the Peace

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:40:53

Hall, Hepworth Gallery, whether that's Shipton, Howarth, our vibrant city centres, our bars,

our Michelin stars restaurants.

You know, it is a great place to visit, and we are, through the LVEP, making that case

that people are now really listening to West Yorkshire as a region to come and visit.

So really excited that we've been able to do this.

Any further comments?

No?

Thank you.

Okie doke.

Let's move to the voting.

So for the West Yorkshire Local Visitor Economy Partnership Phase 3, the Investment Board

subject to conditions with reference to 4 .23,

approves the change request to the West Yorkshire

local visitor economy partnership,

the LVAP phase three scheme, to increase the

combined authorities funding by 461 ,500 to

961 ,500 from 500.

The total scheme costs are 961 ,500 pounds.

To increase delivery time frames from the 1st of July

by 2026 to the 31st of October, 2028, to increase the outputs as outlined in the business case

summary attached to this report, two, approves that future approvals are made in accordance

with the assurance pathway and approval routes and tolerances set out in the business case

summary attached to this report.

All those in favour, please raise your hand.

Thank you.

None against, no abstentions.

That has been carried.

Good.

10 Creative Industries, Culture, Heritage and Sport

We have got to the end of a very interesting, vibrant, thought -provoking meeting, and I'm

really grateful for the time and attention and the focus that you've all paid to reading

the papers and coming with great challenges and cheque -in challenge and great, interesting

world views.

So thank you so much for your contributions and for attending.

And the next meeting is the 15th of October, which is just ahead of the budget, which is

11 Date of the Next Meeting

the 26th of October, is that correct, or 28th?

End of October.

And I declare this meeting closed.

And you have ten more minutes of your life left.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)

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Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)

Managing Director

WYCA

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Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)

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Liz Hunter, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)

Director, Policing, Environment & Place

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Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)

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Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)

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Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council

Bradford Council

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Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council

Bradford Council

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Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council

Calderdale Council

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Cllr Cllr Mike Payne Calderdale Council

Calderdale Council

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Cllr Bob Felstead Chair - Scrutiny Committee

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Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council

Leeds City Council

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Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire

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Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council

Wakefield Council

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Kate Taylor, Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority

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Interactive webcast player

Investment BoardThursday, 3rd September 2026 at 11:00am

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:00:04

Cllr Cllr Mike Payne Calderdale Council - 0:00:32

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:00:45

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:00:56

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:03

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:01:05

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:19

Liz Hunter, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:01:21

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:01:25

Kate Taylor, Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:01:28

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:49

Cllr Bob Felstead Chair - Scrutiny Committee - 0:01:51

Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council - 0:02:02

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:02:04

Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council - 0:02:13

Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:23

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:02:26

Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:39

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:02:46

Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:03:00

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:03:13

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:03:36

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:03:48

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:04:01

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:04:16

Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council - 0:08:16

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:09:00

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:09:09

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:10:46

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:10:50

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:14:01

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:15:04

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:16:41

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:16:53

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:16:55

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:17:02

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:17:08

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:17:17

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:17:40

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:18:04

Cllr Cllr Salma Arif Leeds City Council - 0:19:05

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:19:51

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:20:38

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:21:07

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:21:08

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:21:14

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:21:19

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:21:39

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:23:22

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:23:39

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:24:37

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:25:11

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:25:35

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:25:41

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:25:46

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:25:52

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:26:12

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:26:25

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:26:26

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:26:34

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:26:56

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:27:35

Cllr Cllr Ian Eglin Bradford Council - 0:28:17

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:28:47

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:28:48

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:30:49

Cllr Cllr Raph Cohn Bradford Council - 0:30:56

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:31:33

Simon Pope, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:31:41

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:31:53

Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:31:54

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:32:41

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:33:23

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:34:49

Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:34:59

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:35:41

Cllr Cllr Martin Hey Calderdale Council - 0:36:34

Cllr Cllr Matthew Pinder Wakefield Council - 0:36:48

Investment Board
Thursday, 3rd September 2026 at 11:00am