Autumn Statement 2016: What it means for York

Julian Sturdy, the Conservative MP for York Outer, said: “I was very disappointed that the northern ring road was not included in the successful list of bids to the Local Majors Fund for money to develop the business case to dual the badly congested road. 

“However, I am pursuing the Government on whether any further announcements will be made, and I will be lobbying for York to get its fair share of infrastructure investment as part of the National Productivity Fund.”

Key points announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond included a rise in the National Living Wage from £7.20 to £7.50 from next April; an increase in insurance premium tax from ten per cent to 12 per cent from next June; £1.4 billion to deliver 40,000 extra affordable homes and £1.1 billion extra investment in local transport networks.

Mr Sturdy welcomed items in the statement, including the new £23 billion National Productivity Fund for infrastructure investment, a freeze in fuel duty and rural business rate relief being increased to 100 per cent in April 2017.

But Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central, attacked the statement, saying: “It is official that the long-term economic plan has failed.” 

She said debt was spiralling out of control, as the national debt had now reached £1.7 trillion and household debt had rocketed to £1.5 trillion.

Growth would be far lower than projected, investment and pay were down and the Government had the lowest housebuilding programme since the 1920s

“For the last six years many people in York have been really struggling,” she said.

The Autumn Statement also revealed that the University of York had been given a leading role in shaping the future of a vital sector of the northern economy.

The university is to lead a consortium carrying out a comprehensive audit of the bioeconomy in the north of England - a sector which is estimated to contribute nearly £50 billion and provide about 230,000 jobs in the region.

Professor Koen Lamberts, the university’s vice-chancellor, said: “It is vital we maximise the region’s potential as we look to deliver an integrated and innovative bioeconomy, able to compete in the multi-trillion-pound global market for sustainable food, feed, chemicals, and fuels.”

York MPs Rachael Maskell and Julian Sturdy

James Farrar, chief operating officer of the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Enterprise Partnership, welcomed the university’s role, saying: “It will help continue to demonstrate York, North Yorkshire and the East Riding’s global reputation in the field.”

The statement also included £556 million for local enterprise partnerships in the north. Mr Farrar said his organisation was ready to build on its role as a proven route for the Government to channel funds into the local area, and was waiting for specific details about the area’s funding allocation.

Stephen Wright, chairman of West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “The measures on transport and infrastructure, and for local regions, are welcomed.  A commitment to continue with the Northern Powerhouse agenda is also applauded. 

“A steady hand is needed in the Treasury and the rest of Government just now and so increased resources for transport, housing, broadband and innovation will help business and markets.”

Philip Dyer, Northern Powerhouse Director at York-based consultancy Atkins, said: “The £1.8 billion local growth fund for the regions and £1.1 billion extra investment for English local transport networks is also a welcome step forward.”

Yorkshire Housing welcomed the decision to provide an additional £1.4bn of funding to build 40,000 new affordable homes. 

Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, welcomed the confirmation of plans to remove £6.7 billion from the business rates system, and the decision to make rural rate relief fairer for small firms, but said there would need to be stronger fiscal interventions to boost the economy next year.

THE decision to ban upfront fees charged by letting agents has come under fire.

Michael Redmond, managing director of York-based Redmove said: “A ban on lettings agent fees is a potentially crippling measure for the lettings industry, and as an independent local agency we do not welcome this move in any way.

“The lettings arm of Redmove does not generate a vast income from tenancy fees; it simply covers the cost of a genuine service that we provide to help protect tenants and find them a rental property from a reputable landlord.

“Already overstretched landlords are not going to want to absorb this cost and if they are forced to, they will likely relay it back to the tenant by increasing rent. So, ultimately by introducing this measure, ironically it will be the tenant who ends up paying.”

Glynis Frew, managing director of Hunters Property Plc, a national agency which was founded in York, said it was “very disappointed”.

“An outright ban would have unintended consequences on the very people the Government wants to protect, perhaps financially or even in terms of property safety. Agents perform both a service and a paralegal role when assisting tenants to move home.”

She said in their national tenant survey commissioned earlier this year 75 per cent of respondents said they did not want rents to increase to cover the cost of banning lettings fees.

Geoff White, policy manager, North & Midlands, for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: “Britain’s landlords have the potential to be the solution to our housing crisis, not the problem.

It is simplistic to suggest that they must pick up the letting agencies’ charges and a disincentive when we are in urgent need of more landlords entering the market.

“Government must strike the right balance between allowing credible, regulated letting agencies to recover reasonable costs and the unquestionable need to protect tenants from suffering excessive charges by less scrupulous agents.”