York And North Yorkshire Mayor Praises "Fantastic Progress" As Combined Authority Marks £124m Spend

Mayor David Skaith has hailed the rapid progress of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority over the last year, as a new report reveals £124 million was deployed to support businesses, housing, and transport across the region.

The York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority has successfully deployed more than £124 million across 50 programmes over the 2025/2026 financial year, according to a newly published delivery update.

The report, presented by the Directors of Economy and Transport on the 5th of June 2026, details the region's progress across key service areas including business growth, skills and education, housing, environment, and transport.

York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith praised the speed and collaborative nature of the authority's work over the past year.

He said:

"We've made fantastic progress over the last couple of years, and it's very easy to compare ourselves to massive organizations that have been doing this for almost a decade, but comparison to them, we are moving a lot faster, a lot further and with greater clarity and purpose of what we're trying to do and what we have done over the last couple of years.

That's in large down to the teamwork and the combined authority both local authorities. And we work tirelessly to gain and maintain our reputation across the council and the country for working in a really collaborative way to the betterment of our businesses."

The latest figures show that the authority's Integrated Delivery Unit managed a total delivery target of over £150 million. Despite some governmental delays impacting initial timelines, the overall spend reached £124,040,243, with £24.1 million rolling over into the next financial year.

Through 460 grant funding agreements, the authority issued £128.3 million, unlocking a further £338.9 million in match contributions. The impact of this funding has been widespread, with over 20,000 adults engaging in upskilling or training, and more than 3,100 businesses receiving direct support.

Mayor Skaith highlighted several key areas of success, noting the significant impact of skills bootcamps, business support, and environmental initiatives.

He said:

"Investment in this area if 128 million unlocking total investment of 446 million to our communities. Business growth, we supported 2,000 businesses just last year alone. Education, employment, training 600 new learners just on the Wave 6  alone of the skills bootcamp providing those essential skills. One great one was for the HGV license for young people in particular. What a great initiative.

Environmental impact as well, the mayoral renewable funding so we are getting to see particularly solar panels, transport and very much oversubscribed the active travel fund which I think is probably the the most oversubscribed fund that we've had and see the projects coming out of those as well.

And so, so, so much more. It feels like so much of that is happening now. So, an amazing work."

The Combined Authority's report also outlines major strides in housing and infrastructure. Contracted commitments on brownfield housing sites are set to deliver 1,385 new homes by March 2029, with 65 percent designated as affordable housing.

In the transport sector, which accounted for the largest portion of the budget, £81.3 million was spent against a £97.2 million target. This included the distribution of circa £100 million in transport grants to support local schemes and mayoral bus priorities.

Environmental projects have also seen substantial backing. The launch of the Carbon Negative Challenge Fund and the £1.06 million Mayoral Renewables Fund have enabled community energy and retrofit projects alongside local councils and emergency services.

For local enterprises, the Growth Hub supported over 2,000 businesses in the last year alone, offering webinars, roadshows, and one-to-one advice. The Great Ideas programme has also seen over 200 businesses register for potential grant funding of up to £60,000 to help get innovative services to investment-ready status.

Education and employment initiatives have also thrived, with over 6,300 learners supported through the Adult Skills Fund and Free Courses for Jobs. The launch of the £10.37 million Connect to Work programme aims to tackle economic inactivity by supporting people with disabilities and complex barriers to enter and stay in employment.