This is where the Budget 2020 lets Leeds down

It is a mixed bag for Leeds in the new Budget for 2020.
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While cash has been set aside for a devolution deal for West Yorkshire, giving the region £38m a year for 30 years for local priorities there are key areas that need investment that appear to have been overlooked.

It comes after the Yorkshire Evening Post made calls for investment into flood funding, social inequality, transport, school cash and social care.

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These are the key areas where Leeds needs money from Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Bu...
Chancellor Rishi Sunak outside 11 Downing Street, London, before heading to the House of Commons to deliver his Budget.Chancellor Rishi Sunak outside 11 Downing Street, London, before heading to the House of Commons to deliver his Budget.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak outside 11 Downing Street, London, before heading to the House of Commons to deliver his Budget.
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£23.4m has been allocated to delivery of Hebden Bridge and Brighouse Flood Alleviation Schemes, according to The Treasury, but there is no mention of Leeds which still finds itself with a £23m shortfall for flood defences four years after the Boxing Day deluge of 2015.

Announcements for Yorkshire and the Humber fail to mention interventions in the education and schooling system even though £20m has been cut from the Leeds high needs budget in the last two years alone and there is a £100m backlog of repairs listed for the city’s secondary schools.

And while the region will get a share of the £2.7bn for six major hospital schemes from the Health Infrastructure Plan, which includes Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust the social care crisis is set to continue.

What the budget means for driversEarlier this year the council announced it will have to make £30m of cuts, in 2016/17 £76.3m was taken out of the pot followed by a further £81m the year after.

Devolution photocall with the leaders of the local councils, Granary Wharf, Leeds. Pictured from the left are Shabir Pandor (kirklees Council Leader), Tim Swift (Calderdale) Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford) Judith Blake (Leeds) and Denise Jeffery (Wakefield)Devolution photocall with the leaders of the local councils, Granary Wharf, Leeds. Pictured from the left are Shabir Pandor (kirklees Council Leader), Tim Swift (Calderdale) Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford) Judith Blake (Leeds) and Denise Jeffery (Wakefield)
Devolution photocall with the leaders of the local councils, Granary Wharf, Leeds. Pictured from the left are Shabir Pandor (kirklees Council Leader), Tim Swift (Calderdale) Susan Hinchcliffe (Bradford) Judith Blake (Leeds) and Denise Jeffery (Wakefield)
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Mike Padgham of the Independent Care Group said: “There was a lot to welcome in the budget: extra funding for the NHS, support for small businesses and a lot to help the economy during the coronavirus outbreak.

“But this was also, an opportunity missed to begin tackling the ongoing crisis in social care. Some 1.5m people aren’t getting the care they need and we have been promised measures for years, but nothing is changing.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said: “As part of our levelling up agenda, we will be driving investment in Yorkshire and Humberside – signing a new devolution deal in West Yorkshire which commits to decades of investment for local priorities.”

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