2024 is going to be a year for elections. In the United States, November will see a presidential election and sometime this year we will see a general election in the UK that will decide who represents us in parliament. However, on 2 May we’ll be voting in a different kind of election – local elections, in which it will be the turn of many of us to vote for local councillors to represent us on county, borough, or metropolitan councils.
For the people of North Yorkshire, however, this year’s local elections will be entirely unprecedented, as for the first time they will have a chance to elect a mayor for the whole region. North Yorkshire is something of an untested battleground; the Conservative Party, despite having problems in national polls, see the area as a key heartland for them. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is, of course, an MP in the area, and any loss at a mayoral election could potentially cause panic in Conservative Central Office.
Equally, the Labour Party must see this as a pivotal election. Prior to the election of Keir Mather in the Selby and Ainsty by-election last year, most commentators would have suggested it was highly unlikely that Labour could win in North Yorkshire. Could the mayoral election change that?
Labour’s candidate – meeting David Skaith
I recently sat down with David Skaith, the Labour Party’s mayoral candidate, to discuss what policies he was advocating for and why he decided to put himself up for election.
David was busy preparing his campaign when I spoke to him. It wasn’t long until it was due to be launched – in Wheldrake on 2 March – and he was clearly excited about getting stuck in. David’s manner perhaps reflects his career; a businessman for the past nine years in Harrogate he has a mixture of passion and professionalism running both through his campaign and through his approach to politics.
To begin, I asked him why he wanted to be the Labour Party’s candidate to become Mayor of North Yorkshire.
“I think the main reason really was because I don’t see this position as a traditional political position,” Skaith began. “I see it as more of an enabling position or position of bringing people together.” Skaith further explained that he saw the way forward for the county as being through a transformation of its economy and he was determined to enact this change for a very personal reason.
“I’ve got a wife and two young children here”, Skaith explained, “I think the skills I’ve learned over the years having a small business, and the passion I have for really trying to make a change, is what is needed. We need to start doing things differently.”
The importance of housing in North Yorkshire
Turning to housing, I asked why Skaith thought that the issue was so important in North Yorkshire and what kind of plans he had, if elected, for helping to encourage more homes to be built in the region.
“Our region has been a huge problem”, he began.
“It’s a huge problem all over the country. But it’s a really big problem here. We haven’t been building enough houses of any type – social housing, affordable housing; we haven’t been building enough of anything”. “The result”, as he said, “is that when young people leave the region, for example, for university, they don’t come back”.
A compounding factor is the cost of buying a house – “just not affordable” for anyone under 35, as Skaith pointed out. And, although house ownership may not be for everyone, Skaith is determined it should be available as an option that allows people to stay where they grew up.
“I will look to support fully, 100% affordable houses on council-owned land. We can do these very innovative things, we can work with Homes England, to set the standard of the homes we want and the types of homes that we’ll be building for the future and setting the direction of travel.”
Skaith went on to reiterate that whilst building these homes would take time, his main aim was to begin the process in the right way and push forward the building of affordable homes as quickly as possible, emphasising the need for a greater number of homes to be built across the region.
The mayor’s High Street Fund and North Yorkshire
I then asked Skaith about his economic programme, specifically the Mayor’s High Street fund, something he seems especially passionate about.
“I’ve run a business now since 2015. I’ve been very lucky. But we’ve gone through a lot of tough times. In 2016 we had Brexit and everything that’s come since that and then in 2020 Covid hit. And then we’ve had the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis. Being a small business owner, or really any business owner, has been incredibly difficult over the last seven or eight years – and particularly so over the last three or four years.
“Businesses are carrying more debt now than ever. Yes, a lot of businesses got through Covid. But at what cost? Many have now burned through their safety net, their savings, they’ve taken on bounce back loans, they’ve taken on credit cards, and it’s now costing more to run their business than it ever has done.”
Skaith went on to explain his central focus on the Mayor’s High Street Fund. This initiative, designed to be similar to the York High Street Forum of which David is chair – and which provides economic and advisory support to business, would be to give enterprises across York and North Yorkshire the greatest possible opportunity to rebuild in the wake of the economic hardship faced by so many companies across the region.
He elaborated that his emphasis wouldn’t simply be on providing cash for businesses but on helping to reinvigorate the high streets in other ways.
“Some of the ways we can help would just be to make [shops] look smarter and better presented like we’ve seen in York recently. But further than that, it’ll be looking to support businesses coming into empty units.
“It’ll be looking to attract new shops, new retailers into our towns and cities, looking to promote the importance of bringing people into our towns and cities right across the region.”
The importance of farming and food security
I concluded my interview with Skaith by asking him how he would seek to work on helping the rural parts of North Yorkshire, areas that have often felt neglected because of their relative remoteness as compared to other parts of the country.
Skaith emphasised that alongside improving infrastructure, such roads filled with potholes and access to train and bus services, it would also be important to him as mayor to put support for farmers across the region front and centre. This is not just because it’s a great way to support rural communities, he said, but also because “We’ve seen over the last few years how vulnerable the food supply has been with war in Ukraine and everything that’s been happening in Europe.”
To create better food security, we need to be producing more here and working with our producers, which, he added, “is a great way to reduce our carbon footprint – because we’re not importing so much food from all over the world. We can reduce our food miles.”
Regardless of its eventual outcome, the race to become the next mayor of North Yorkshire is important – both as an indicator of the way that Britain intends to vote in the coming general election, and as a determining factor in how North Yorkshire moves forward into the future.
So, wherever you live in the county, make sure to be ready to vote on 2 May.
