Press release: Awareness campaign for Sheffield City Region Mayoral election begins

A campaign to raise public awareness of the Sheffield City Region Mayoral election starts today (26 March 2018).

The campaign will give residents in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield information on the election and how to vote in it. The campaign will run across social media, in radio advertisements and in posters at numerous locations across the Sheffield City Region.

Similar awareness campaigns ran across the UK ahead of Mayoral elections in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and Tees Valley regions last year.

The campaign will end on 11 April with the election taking place on 3 May.

Once elected, the Mayor of the Sheffield City Region will become a major figure in the political life of the South Yorkshire region, acting as an ambassador promoting the region as a great place to live, work, visit and invest in.

Dave Smith, Managing Director of the Sheffield City Region said:

I urge all residents in South Yorkshire to make sure you are registered and able to vote in the election of a Sheffield City Region Mayor on the May 30.

See more information on the Sheffield City Region Mayoral election and how to vote.

Further information

The Sheffield City Region deal was agreed on the 2 October 2015 between the government and civic leaders from South Yorkshire.

Sheffield City Region was one of 38 towns, cities, counties and regions which submitted ambitious proposals to Westminster to take control of how public money is spent in their area.

The mayor will oversee a range of powers devolved from government including responsibility over transport budgets; franchised bus services and strategic planning while the deal also includes additional devolved powers for the area’s Combined Authority.

This includes a new gain share deal within an envelope of £30 million a year for 30 years – giving Sheffield the power to use new funding to boost local growth and invest in local manufacturing and innovation.

The new mayor will act as Chair to the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority and will exercise a range of powers devolved from central government including:

• responsibility over the region’s transport budget, with a multi-year settlement to be agreed at the Spending Review
• responsibility for franchised bus services, which will support the Combined Authority’s delivery of smart and integrated ticketing across its councils
• responsibility for an identified Key Route Network of local authority roads that will be collaboratively managed and maintained at the city region level by the Combined Authority on behalf of the mayor
• powers over strategic planning

The Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, working with the mayor, will also receive the following powers:

• control of a new gain share deal, like that agreed with Greater Manchester and other areas, within an envelope of £30 million a year for 30 years – giving Sheffield the power to boost local growth and invest in local manufacturing and innovation
• responsibility for chairing an area-based review of 16+ skills provision and devolved 19+ adult skills funding from 2018 to 2019
• joint responsibility with government to co-design employment support for the harder-to-help claimants, many of whom are currently referred to the Work Programme and Work Choice
• more effective joint working with UKTI to boost trade and investment, and responsibility to work with government to develop and implement a devolved approach to the delivery of national business support programmes from 2017
• 17 July and 18 September 2017 – at meetings of the Combined Authority, Barnsley and Doncaster did not give agreement to progress with the consultation – the next stage needed to implement the devolution deal
• in order to have these powers transferred to them the 4 South Yorkshire councils need to do all that is necessary to fully implement the Sheffield City Region as soon as possible; this would require them to first undertake the consultation on these devolved powers