NORTH Yorkshire’s rural commission, the first of its kind nationally, is taking forward recommendations in a hard-hitting radical report to level up rural communities.

The commissioners have called on local and national government and key agencies to draw up a series of radical actions to transform the region to one that has more young people, a thriving rural economy and is fully connected.

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Commissioners told stakeholders today that a key recommendation would be for the devolved authority to create a task force that would include civil servants, rural business, banking and industry, academic and scientific expertise, and local communities to advise and help carry out the recommendations of the report.

The report, which is called Rural North Yorkshire: the way forward, was launched at the great Yorkshire show to key stakeholders.

These included representatives for culture, media and sport, the Environment Agency, housing associations, charities, community agencies, landowners, business and The National Farmers Union.

The Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire, Jo Ropner, also attended and commended the report.

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The Commission states that central government should ensure additional powers and funding for the devolved authority so that it has a capacity in the region for decision-making and control of significant funding.

Estimates from the Commission show that if North Yorkshire had the same percentage of younger adults per head of population as nationally, there would be over 45,500 added younger working age adults and North Yorkshire would be £1.5 billion better off.

Very Reverend John Dobson DL, Dean of Ripon and also chair of the Commission, said: “At the heart of this report is the fundamental belief that people are the greatest asset in North Yorkshire.

“They build community, economy and a good life. The missing generation of younger workers in the county hinders the ability of North Yorkshire to achieve the full potential of an effective economy.

“This missing generation relates to all of the themes examined by the Commission; unaffordability of housing for this age group, school closures because of lack of demand, the people to drive a forward looking green economy, depleting services because of declining population, and a skewed older age group.

“North Yorkshire needs a strong devolved authority to tackle the problems faced by its rural and remote areas.”

County Councillor Carl Les, North Yorkshire County Council leader, said: “We set up the Rural Commission as an independent body so they could look with fresh eyes at the many problems that have troubled our rural communities for years. 

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“We thank them for their hard work, their months of sifting evidence, visiting communities and discussions with key figures and agencies in rural affairs and joining up the thinking into one report.   

“The Commissioners’ recommendations are rightly challenging, for us at the County Council  as for other agencies and Government departments. 

“Nevertheless it is pleasing to see that the Commission does recognise work that the County Council has done, and that the pursuit of devolution is the right thing to do.”

Throughout their report, Commissioners raised difficult and hard policy questions to be addressed, such as:

  • Affordable rural housing must become a reality rather than an aspiration and this will require more houses in rural and remote areas rather than on the edges of market towns. The Commission believes it is possible to achieve this objective without compromising the region’s beauty.
  • Tackling climate  change is a priority for the county. The Commission firmly supports the region’s ambition to become a ‘green lung’ and to lead on employment in the green economy and a revolutionary energy transition.
  • Farming needs radical change to be sustainable for the future.
  • Digital connection underpins many of these ambitions. The Commission believes that digital connection must be understood as a human right.
  • The region has considerable wealth and the Commission sees a mutual bank as a means for intra-county investing in levelling up sparse areas. Often smaller initiatives seeking seed funding have less success with mainstream banks.

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