DCMS recognises the interest from local areas in exploring ways to support and sustain their visitor economies, including through the use of voluntary tourist levies.

Tourist levies organised by Accommodation Business Improvement Districts, such as those piloted in Manchester and being explored in other parts of the country, are locally driven initiatives that enable participating businesses to pool resources to fund tourism-related services and improvements. While these schemes are still relatively new, DCMS is monitoring their development and engaging with stakeholders to understand their impact.

DCMS has had a range of discussions with local leaders, including directly elected Mayors, about the tools available to support tourism. While the introduction of statutory tourist levies would be a matter for wider cross-government consideration, DCMS is continuing to engage with local authorities and Combined Authorities to understand their ambitions and ensure the sector remains sustainable and competitive.

In January 2023, the Government published its Environmental Improvement Plan. This included a commitment for more joined up management of the water system. The current water and floods policy and legal framework has been developed incrementally over time, resulting in over 15 national plans and strategic documents. Whilst each plan has its own purpose, we want to make the whole framework more outcome-focussed and fully integrated with other environmental plans and government delivery plans. We reiterated this commitment in our landmark Plan for Water published in April 2023.

The Government recognises the importance of having a robust drainage system both now and for future demand. To improve the strategic management of drainage and target investment appropriately to meet future needs, water and sewerage companies have produced Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs). DWMPs set out how a water company intends to improve their drainage and wastewater systems over the next 25 years, including how the drainage network will adapt to changes such as an increasing population and urban creep. Water companies in England (including Yorkshire Water) have already produced one round of DWMPs, with the final plans published in Summer 2023. As committed to in the Plan for Water and the Environmental Improvement Plan, DWMPs will be placed on a statutory footing for the next cycle (2024-2029), in line with the ambition laid out in section 79 of the Environment Act 2021. Statutory planning will help to ensure that sewerage companies fully assess the wastewater and sewerage network capacity and promote closer working and development of collaborative solutions with others who are responsible for parts of the drainage network, such as local authorities. Combined with other water plans and initiatives, DWMPs will help to ensure drainage and wastewater services are better managed and properly supported, as well as delivering greater efficiencies for customers and supporting investment in nature-based solutions.

The York and North Yorkshire devolution deal was agreed on 1 August 2022; details of the deal can be found at the following link. The draft York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Order 2023 was laid in Parliament on 7 November; this, together with the Explanatory Memorandum, can be found at the following link.

The Levelling Up White Paper set out our plans to strengthen local institutions, support private sector partnerships, and build economic clusters to boost local investment, jobs and growth

Devolution deals equip local areas with powers and funding to plan and deliver local priorities for their local economies over the long-term. The York and North Yorkshire deal includes a Mayoral Investment Fund of £18 million per year for 30 years

Announcements will be made in due course and in the usual way.

Whilst neither my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State nor I have yet had an opportunity for direct discussions with the representatives of North Yorkshire County Council or the City of York Council about their ambitious devolution deal, we welcome the steps those councils are taking to implement the deal and look forward to working with them on this.

The Government is committed to the clear vision and direction that was set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. This includes delivering our mission to empower local leaders and communities through extending devolution across England. The Government has engaged extensively with local authorities in the area and negotiations for a devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire are now in their final stages. The devolution of specific budgets will be subject to agreement through these negotiations.

The Government is committed to the clear vision and direction that was set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. This includes delivering our mission to empower local leaders and communities through extending devolution across England. The Government has engaged extensively with local authorities in the area and negotiations for a devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire are now in their final stages. The devolution of specific budgets will be subject to agreement through these negotiations.

The Government is committed to the clear vision and direction that was set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. This includes delivering our mission to empower local leaders and communities through extending devolution across England. The Government has engaged extensively with local authorities in the area and negotiations for a devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire are now in their final stages. The devolution of specific budgets will be subject to agreement through these negotiations.

The Government is committed to the clear vision and direction that was set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. This includes delivering our mission to empower local leaders and communities through extending devolution across England. The Government has engaged extensively with local authorities in the area and negotiations for a devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire are now in their final stages. The devolution of specific budgets will be subject to agreement through these negotiations.

The Government is committed to the clear vision and direction that was set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. This includes delivering our mission to empower local leaders and communities through extending devolution across England. The Government has engaged extensively with local authorities in the area and negotiations for a devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire are now in their final stages. The devolution of specific budgets will be subject to agreement through these negotiations.

The Government is committed to the clear vision and direction that was set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. This includes delivering our mission to empower local leaders and communities through extending devolution across England. The Government has engaged extensively with local authorities in the area and negotiations for a devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire are now in their final stages. The devolution of specific budgets will be subject to agreement through these negotiations.

The Government is committed to the clear vision and direction that was set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. This includes delivering our mission to empower local leaders and communities through extending devolution across England. The Government has engaged extensively with local authorities in the area and negotiations for a devolution deal for York and North Yorkshire are now in their final stages. The devolution of specific budgets will be subject to agreement through these negotiations.

We are committed to devolving more power away from Whitehall to people and places across the UK. We are reviewing the exciting proposals prepared by the leaders of North Yorkshire and the City of York for a devolution deal and we look forward to discussing those proposals further with them soon. We will be saying more about our plans to strengthen local leadership in the forthcoming White Paper.

The devolved administrations received £6bn of Barnett consequentials at Main Estimates 2020-21 and will formally receive the remainder of the guaranteed funding at Supplementary Estimates towards the end of the financial year.

The Barnett consequentials associated with the funding for charities in England will contribute up to £106m to these guarantees.

On 24 July, the UK Government made an unprecedented upfront guarantee to the devolved administrations. The UK Government guaranteed that they will receive at least £12.7bn in additional resource funding this year on top of their Spring Budget funding. The Scottish Government has been guaranteed £6.5bn, the Welsh Government £4bn, and the Northern Ireland Executive £2.2bn. The Barnett consequentials associated with the coronavirus funding for charities will make up a part of these guarantees.

It is for the devolved administrations to decide how much of their funding they use to support charitable organisations within their respective nations.

We are in early discussions with York and North Yorkshire about devolution, and are committed to negotiating more devolution settlements like the West Yorkshire Devolution Deal agreed in March.

Whilst we are considering the material 18 councils and the Sheffield City Region Mayor submitted to us about a One Yorkshire proposal, our priority remains the full implementation of the Sheffield City Region. The Mayor was elected on a commitment to implement this deal in full, and we will support him in this ambition.

Following December’s floods we established the National Flood Resilience Review, which assessed how the country can be better protected from future flooding and increasingly extreme weather events. The scope of the review was focused on England, but stakeholders in the Devolved Administrations were consulted and updated as appropriate throughout the process