Decentralisation and the Future of Yorkshire’ event
Fri, 01 May 2015 14:29:00 BST
There was much lively political debate on 13 February 2015, when national and local politicians, academics, democratic reform activists, and representatives from the business community came together to discuss ‘Decentralisation and the Future of Yorkshire’ at the University of Huddersfield. The event was co-sponsored by the Centre for Research in the Social Sciences (CRISS) based at the University of Huddersfield and the Political Studies Association (PSA). It was organised by a team affiliated to the Britishness specialist group: Dr Arianna Giovannini, Dr Andrew Mycock, Dr Catherine McGlynn and Dr Shaun McDaid.
Over 70 delegates and representatives from the media heard a keynote address given by the Director of the Institute of Public Policy North, Ed Cox, who analysed recent developments concerning regional devolution in England and scoped potential future challenges and opportunities.
The event also featured a panel of MPs from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire: Jason McCartney, Barry Sheerman, and Andrew Percy. This was chaired by the BBC’s Yorkshire political editor, Len Tingle. The MPs discussed their recently launched manifesto Devolution for Prosperity.
A panel of academic research exploring devolution across the UK regions and in comparative perspective was aired at the symposium, featuring recent work by Dr Pete Woodcock and Dr Arianna Giovannini (Huddersfield), and papers from Dr Joanie Willett (Exeter), Dr John Ault (Bristol) and Dr Eve Hepburn (Edinburgh).
There were two further panels, one exploring the political economy of regional devolution in Yorkshire, featuring prominent members of the Sheffield City Region LEP local enterprise partnerships , Kirklees Metropolitan Council, Confederation of British Industry Yorkshire and the Humber the CBI Yorkshire and Humber, and Hannah Mitchell Foundation.
The symposium concluded with a roundtable discussion, chaired by Dr Andrew Mycock, featuring representatives from the Centre for Cities, Unlock Democracy and new regionalist party, Yorkshire First. The event attracted media interest from Kirklees Local TV, the Huddersfield Examiner and BBC Radio Leeds broadcast live news and interviews from the event. Plans are underway to follow up the symposium with further events and a series of outputs aimed at both academic and non-academic audiences.
