Further £30m cash boost for Sheffield City region

This is in addition to £320m secured from Government last year, which will help the Sheffield City Region 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:

·        Go towards building new training facilities, including plans for a Rail Engineering Campus in Doncaster

·        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.

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.

“Work is already underway to maximise our funding and create thousands of new jobs and training opportunities for local people. This additional £30 million funding will accelerate and enhance this crucial work.”

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.

“This ‘Growth Deal Round 2’ with Government adds to our £325 million allocation which we secured in the first round of Growth Deals. Once again, we are leading the charge when it comes to getting the powers and funding from Government that local leaders need to boost growth in our private sector.”