Covid recovery bids focus on deprived areas in North Yorkshire

The Government is set to be urged to approved a spectrum of proposed projects designed to help North Yorkshire’s most deprived communities bounce back from the pandemic and start the transition from EU funding.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive will consider today (Tuesday 8th June) submitting plans for 28 projects in an £8.4m bid to the Community Renewal Fund national programme focusing on removing barriers that people face in accessing skills and local labour market opportunities.

While a number of North Yorkshire’s neighbouring areas, including County Durham, Darlington, Doncaster and Bradford have been classed as high priority areas by the Government for the funding, only Scarborough and Richmondshire districts in the county have been identified as being of high priority.

A Government spokesman said it had prioritised places that suffer from weak economic performance and that were less equipped to resist and recover from shocks.

Despite some £1.9m of the bids being focused on Richmondshire and £3m of the bids on Scarborough, the council bid looks set to include £817,000 of proposed schemes based in Craven, £818,000 in Hambleton, £432,000 in Harrogate, £981,000 in Ryedale and £469,000 in Selby.

The Government is expected to announce which of the 28 schemes are successful before August.

While the county council has not revealed the nature of any of the schemes due to business sensitivity, it has stated the key objective of the programme is to enable innovation through pilot programmes and new approaches.

County council finance executive member Councillor Gareth Dadd rejected suggestions that the Government’s decision to prioritise just two districts in North Yorkshire was disappointing, particularly given that much of North Yorkshire, with its dependence on the tourism and hospitality sectors had been hard hit by the pandemic.

Welcoming the potential help for less affluent areas, Cllr Dadd said:

“Levels of deprivation are highest in Scarborough and parts of Richmondshire. Businesses such as bed and breakfasts have been supported by the government through the pandemic better than anybody could have hoped for.

“Many of the proposals would reach out from their base area and anything that has a chance of being approved has been submitted.”

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.

• North Yorkshire