Extra £30m Cash Boost Secured for Sheffield City Region
Local leaders from the public and private sector have secured a £30 million cash boost for Sheffield City Region (which includes Chesterfield). This is in addition to £320m secured from Government last year, which will help the Local Enterprise Partnership to deliver its vision of creating 70,000 jobs over the next decade.
This top-up from Government makes Sheffield City Region’s total Growth Deal the fifth most substantial deal made with any City Region in England.
This extra funding will:
Enable the LEP to extend its highly successful business investment and support programme and create 4,400 new jobs for local people
Support a programme of investment in sustainable transport projects which could include cycle lanes, bus lanes, tram rail line replacement and other measures to make it easier and cheaper for people to get to work
Be invested in ready-to-go sites to help meet unmet demand from businesses wanting to set up quickly on Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone
Support infrastructure work on the Midland Mainline which will mean faster journey times from Sheffield and Chesterfield to London.
Go towards building new training facilities, including plans for a Rail Engineering Campus in Doncaster
Councillor Sir Stephen Houghton CBE, Chairman of the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, said:
“This Deal marks another milestone on our ‘devolution journey’ and builds on our recent Devolution Deal which transferred additional powers and policy levers from Government to our City Region’s decision makers.
“The Deal will need to be approved by Government after the General Election in May but we’re confident that this investment will be considered important by ministers of any political party as it is based on what our economy needs to grow.
James Newman, Chairman of the Sheffield City Region LEP, said:
“This is another step forward in ensuring that our City Region has the powers and funding that we need to grow our economy by growing local businesses and creating good jobs for local people.
“This important deal is the result of the excellent local partnerships in place across our City Region, particularly between the private sector led LEP Board and the Combined Authority. These strong local partnerships bring together local leaders from local government and from the private sector to make more effective local economic decisions.”
