Introduction to the Yorkshire and Humber Strategy

The Yorkshire and Humber Strategy is a different kind of Strategy.  It is an opportunity to create a new and shared vision for the future of Yorkshire and Humber that guides investment by the public sector and other partners.  It is being co-produced through Local Government, Yorkshire Forward and Functional Sub Regions working together. 

The ‘Yorkshire and Humber Strategy' is the name we are giving to the new Integrated Regional Strategy.  Over recent years we have had a range of different regional strategies prepared by different agencies, including separate regional economic and spatial planning strategies.  The process of strategy making is now being streamlined so it matches how things work in the real world, with different issues coming together across different geographic scales.  Reflecting that, the new integrated Yorkshire and Humber Strategy will more effectively join up work to tackle the key climate change, economic, planning, transport, housing and quality of life challenges facing Yorkshire and Humber. 

This new approach will make development and investment priorities clearer and more coherent spatially.  To enable this, the Yorkshire and Humber Strategy will have a strong basis in local and sub-regional priorities.  It will be developed collaboratively between local authorities, regional agencies, and partners working together through ‘Functional Sub Region partnerships’ (covering the Leeds, Sheffield, and Hull and Humber Ports City Regions and the York and North Yorkshire Sub Region).  This is a very different way of producing a region wide strategy compared to previous approaches.

Sustainability will be at the heart of the Yorkshire and Humber Strategy.  It will have a focus on an integrated approach that delivers ‘sustainable economic growth’.  That translates to more resilient economic growth that is within environmental limits, supports a lower carbon economy and an enhanced environment, and which leads to improvements in social welfare and personal wellbeing.

The Yorkshire and Humber Strategy will be a distinctive document which is produced with and for partners and places right across the region.  It will focus on problems and issues that cannot be solved solely through working at local level, and where a regional approach adds value.  It will ensure that we are working together to do the right things at the right spatial scale.  Acting in this collaborative and co-ordinated way will deliver better results and a more prosperous and sustainable future.