These are the key areas where Leeds needs money from Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Budget announcement

The Yorkshire Evening Post will be watching closely to see the impact that the Budget has for the city of Leeds to help look at some of the key areas impacting our city.

Today we shine the spotlight on those issues that we hope will be addressed as part of his financial plan to MPs this lunchtime which affect the lives of those living in Leeds.

TRANSPORT

Get our city moving!

That was the message to the Government issued from business leaders in order to unlock the gridlock in Leeds and improve upon the current miserable experience for commuters.

The respected Centre for Cities think tank called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to use the Budget to set out how it will target transport investment in major cities such as Leeds.

It stated that current levels of congestion in Leeds are holding back productivity and earlier this year the Yorkshire Evening Post launched its Unlock the Gridlock campaign to call for an end that is the traffic nightmare of travelling from one side of Leeds to another.

Leeds remains the largest city in Western Europe to lack a mass transit system.

Two attempts to bring one to the city in recent years were botched although a third attempt is currently the subject of public consultation.

Everyone in this city has a stake in being able to get to and from their homes, their places of work and across Leeds without having to worry about the transport nightmares many of us face on a daily basis.

Be that on the bus network, combating with the trains on a daily basis or simply struggling to find an alternative means of transport rather than our own cars.

Our city deserves actions rather than empty promises to help ease the pressure on its woeful transport infrastructure in a bid to finally unlock the gridlock.

And perhaps the Budget will be a starting point to finally get our city motoring once and for all.

FLOOD FUNDING

Leeds will never forget Boxing Day four years ago, when floods unleashed by Storm Eva destroyed businesses and devastated homes in the city.

They were indefensible.

While people saw their lives and livelihoods destroyed by filthy floodwaters they were promised by Government at the time that they would enjoy “one of the most resilient flood defence programmes in the country”.

Yet fast forward nearly five years and the inaction of central Government to properly protect our city from a repeat of the catastrophic flooding is simply reckless.

In recent weeks storm after storm has battered the city, leaving many families and businesses fearful their homes, properties and memories would be once again destroyed.

Work on flood alleviation schemes continues but why is it taking so long to provide the full defence it so desperately needs?

Our city has still found itself with a £23m shortfall in funding to ensure that it is properly protected.

It should not take another flooding disaster to plug this gap - next time the rain lashes down on Leeds we might not be so lucky.

SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Much has been said around the narrative of “levelling up” the north of England in recent weeks and months.

There’s a lot to celebrate about life in Leeds especially as it is named one of the fastest growing cities in the UK.

But for all the accolades of a city continuing on an upward trajectory - you can’t argue with the figures.

They are stark, they are harsh and for those living in the shadows of the spectacle of the city centre it’s a reality.

A child growing up just seven miles down the road from another child - who could have been born on exactly the same day - their outcomes are going to be very different.

And, as the social inequality crisis continues to deepen, charities in Leeds say they are having to step in and fill the gap left by the lack of Government intervention.

It comes just a month after inequality expert Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s report was reviewed for 2020 and highlights that life expectancy is on the decrease, death rates are on the increase and the north-south divide gap has widened over the last 10 years.

Last year the YEP launched our A City Divided campaign following the revelation there is a 10 year difference in life expectancy for babies born in the most affluent and most deprived parts of the city – which are just a few miles apart.

Devolution has been deemed to be the magic ticket to start tackling issues such as child poverty, lack of transport, crime and health.

While it remains to be seen whether or not this will fully address the issue looking at the refocusing of powers to those in tune with the communities they serve would be a good starting point to bring that accountability to tackle the problem at its root.

SCHOOL FUNDING

Every child in Leeds deserves the best start to life.

Home and family background has a huge effect on the development and future prospects for children.

And that is why every single penny counts.

According to the National Education Union (NEU), special needs provision in England has lost out on £1.2bn since 2015, as funding to local authorities fails to keep pace with rising demand. Children in the Leeds have seen High Needs budget cuts of £20m in the last two years alone.

This leaves education chiefs with the difficult decision of having to move money around their respective pots to ensure that the most vulnerable children do not slip through the net.

This is balanced against a backlog of building repairs totalling £100m to support our city’s crumbling secondary schools.

With population increases a significant number of new school places are needed alongside new buildings for crumbling secondaries.

It was only earlier this week that the YEP highlighted the plight of residents in south Leeds struggling to ensure that their children received a secondary school place that did not involve trekking across the city to a completely different area nearly an hour away.

And last year we highlighted the very stark situation where an assistant headteacher in an inner city school was preparing to hand out bed bundles to children who don’t even had a bed, mattress or duvet in their own homes.

So it is vital that school funding is addressed in this Budget to make sure that our children get the best possible start - otherwise we are setting them up for failure from the very off.

SOCIAL CARE

Council chiefs announced earlier this year that they will be forced to shave off another £30m in cuts.

In 2016/17, council chiefs had £76.3m shaved off from their cash pot followed by a further £81m the year after.

But this is all set to come at a human cost.

The Government is under pressure to take on one of the most pressing issues in the country - the under-funded social care system.

It also comes against the context of still waiting for the social care Green Paper promised in the March 2017 Budget

As Leeds’ population continues to swell nearly half of those savings at a local budget level are set to come from the adult and healthcare pot.

It’s a service that continues to creak under the strain when it comes to meeting the social care demands of an ageing population.

And with that comes the additional pressure on the National Health Service as lack of availability in the social care sector prevents people from leaving hospital.

It’s a vicious circle that has a huge impact on an exceptional service that touches the lives of so many of us right here in Leeds.

But in order to tackle that this the Government must look at how it is going to plug this gap and ultimately what lifeline it’s going to offer to social care services - not only here in Leeds but across the country.