Derbyshire leader urges councillors to grab promising new East Mids authority by the ‘scruff of the neck’

Cllr Barry Lewis, Leader of the Conservative-controlled Derbyshire County Council, told a Full County Council meeting on March 27 that it had been an honour to chair the inaugural EMCCA meeting at Chesterfield Borough Council’s Town Hall, on March 20, prior to the first ever EMCCA Mayoral Election in May.

He said the first meeting had been an important event for the region with EMCCA bringing together four agreed local authorities – Derbyshire County and Derby City councils, and Nottinghamshire County and Nottingham City councils – with the new combined authority’s first mayor due to be voted in after the spring election.

Cllr Lewis said: “We must get behind whoever that may be or may not be regardless of which political party because the Mayor will become the voice of our region.”

He added: “We are looking to work more closely and cooperatively with our brothers and sisters across the region within the combined authority.

“We very much hope inclusive growth will be at the heart of what we do and we will benefit from that work.”

Derbyshire, Derby, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham councils will still oversee many public services but EMCCA will deal with broader issues like transport, regeneration and employment.

During the first EMCCA meeting other councillors also called for unity across political divides with representation for rural areas and the cities.

The new combined authority is expected to oversee more than two billion pounds of annual funding directly from Central Government over the next thirty years with the new devolution deal seen as part of the Government’s Levelling Up plans to attract better funding and investment across the country.

A final legal process to establish EMCCA was completed in February when MP and Levelling Up Minister Jacob Young signed regulations confirming that Derbyshire, Derby, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham will receive a £1.14bn investment fund through EMCCA and the authority will also open up other lucrative funding avenues.

EMCCA’s interim finance representative Mark Kenyon told the new authority’s first meeting that funding for the 2024-25 financial year would total £56m with plans to spend £46m of that total with the remaining £10m to be held over for the next financial year.

Further investment is also to be provided through annual Whitehall budgets and spending reviews and £18m has already been awarded to the region during devolution negotiations which is being spent on improving housing, transport and skills provision.

The Government has also announced £1.5bn of local transport funding for the new East Midlands Mayor and a proposed Investment Zone is planned with priority development sites which will hopefully attract £160m of support over ten years.

These Investment Zone sites are also expected to come with tax incentives for businesses to boost economic growth, with a chance to unlock hundreds of millions of pounds in private investment and create thousands of jobs.

Millions of pounds of funding has already been agreed as part of EMCCA for projects to improve housing, transport and skills including £1.2m for new gigabit broadband across the region, £750,000 for a new cycling and walking route between Markham Vale and Staveley, and £1.5m for a new roundabout on the A6, at Fairfield, Buxton.

Other projects include £2m to address homelessness in Derby and Nottingham, £9.92m for better domestic energy and low carbon activities, £1.22m for affordable housing in Derby, and £1.5m for new growth through green skills for Nottinghamshire.

Many in the region feel this change with a big cash injection has been needed to address the impact caused by decades of under-funding in the East Midlands compared to other areas with the need to improve living standards and deliver better opportunities.

The EMCCA devolution deal is hoped to eventually bring in around £4bn of anticipated funding for the region, alongside devolved powers for transport, skills and adult education, housing, the environment and economic development with greater powers and less Government control.

It is hoped that the EMCCA devolution deal will also bring greater prosperity with a boost for productivity, pay, jobs and living standards, wider opportunities and improved public services and communities.

Conservative-led Derbyshire County Council and Labour-led Chesterfield Borough Council also recently agreed to become part of the newly formed Derbyshire Strategic Leadership Board for Derby and Derbyshire councils to jointly have an influence for the county in EMCCA.

Both councils have recently faced multi-million pound budget shortfalls which they both claim were influenced by the economic climate, but Cllr Lewis has indicated that support through EMCCA will help to ease funding pressures.

Cllr Lewis told the recent county council meeting that for a number of years Derbyshire has received below the average amount of spending per head but it is hoped EMCCA will help change any disparity.

He added that he hopes ‘our shared determination and our shared ambition’ will make a difference to the challenges ahead for the region and for the East Midlands.

Cllr Lewis said: “For the benefit of our residents in Derbyshire we should grab it by the scruff of the neck and I look forward to doing that as leader of the council.”

The Leader of Derby City Council, Cllr Baggy Shanker, Mansfield MP and Nottinghamshire County Council Leader, Ben Bradley, and Nottingham City Council Leader, Cllr David Mellen, who is due to step down as city council leader, have all wholeheartedly backed the newly-formed EMCCA.

District and borough councils from both counties will also have two representatives per county on a shadow board with potential plans to give them voting rights in the future.

Any newly-appointed EMCCA Mayor will focus on transport, net-zero and housing, improving lives, and championing major infrastructure projects, and with closer links to Westminster they will be able to better lobby Government to ensure promises are kept.

It is also hoped that longer term aspirations will include seeking further powers from Westminster, placing more decisions at local level as devolution has done with other areas like the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.

Three candidates have already been selected by their respective political parties to become the first East Midlands Mayor with the inaugural election due to take place on May 2.

They include Conservative Mansfield MP and Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Ben Bradley, Labour’s former Watford MP Claire Ward, who now lives in Nottinghamshire, and Ashfield Independent and Ashfield District Cllr Matt Relf.

It was hoped Leicester City and Leicestershire County councils would join EMCCA but they declined, but it is understood they have agreed to a lesser potential devolution deal with Rutland County Council which will not require a new mayoral post but is also not expected to deliver the same level of investment.