Helen Pidd writing in Wednesday’s Guardian gives a hint that the Northern Powerhouse Minister, Andrew Percy, wants a greater Yorkshire devolution settlements . In a piece ‘Lancashire likely to be first county to elect mayor’ Pidd comments that Andrew Percy said:
“We have to get a deal for the rest of Yorkshire. If you look at the port infrastructure, the M62 corridor, everywhere through to Leeds it’s so important to the economy of the north. We want a devo deal because Manchester is powering ahead, so is Liverpool, so is Tees Valley just to the north. We’ve got this gap in the middle and we’ve got to plug that.”
This is not perhaps as categorical as Pidd thinks but nevertheless continues the nudge towards a Yorkshire-wide devolution settlement, which may, given the problems the city is facing enticing Chesterfield to join in, yet include Sheffield.