The Combined Authority Budget
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority is chaired by Tracy Brabin, the Mayor of West Yorkshire, and brings together the five local authority partners Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield.
We work together on areas that affect everyone in West Yorkshire including transport, housing, skills and the economy.
Watch our short video on the work we do and how we spend our budget on delivering improvements that everyone can benefit from:
We are committed to creating a brighter West Yorkshire that works for all.
We have ambitious plans for the growth of the region, to be supported by a single financial settlement from Government due in 2026.
Our budget sets out how we will deliver our mission-based priorities during a challenging period for public sector finances. The cost of living and increased materials and labour costs have all impacted the cost of delivering programmes which makes your input into shaping how we prioritise our spending even more important.
Please read on and then let us know your thoughts by filling out our survey which should only take a few minutes to complete.
Our missions
Our West Yorkshire Plan sets out an ambitious vision and missions for 2040 that drives our work to transform lives and communities, and tackle inequality across the region.
- A prosperous West Yorkshire, built on an inclusive economy with well-paid jobs
- A happy West Yorkshire, full of great places and healthy communities
- A well-connected West Yorkshire, held together by a strong transport system
- A sustainable West Yorkshire, rich with greener lives and communities
- A safe West Yorkshire, free of the fear of crime so everyone can flourish
The priorities in our budget engagement are aligned to these missions.
We want to hear your views on how these are prioritised before the budget is finalised and approved.
Where do we get our money from?
Our budget for 2024-2025 is £866 million, which is made up of capital and revenue funding.
Revenue funding is available for day-to-day operations and project delivery, while capital funding is earmarked for specific longer-term projects which will have individual consultations in 2025.
Capital funding for 2024-25
We received roughly £478 million capital funding from central Government to improve West Yorkshire transport, housing, jobs and skills, and tackle the climate emergency.
Our capital funding includes:
- City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement
- Transforming Cities Fund, Transport Fund, and Active Travel Fund
- Gainshare
- Levelling Up Fund
- Brownfield Housing Fund
- And other capital funding
Revenue funding for 2024-25
We also received roughly £388 million of revenue funding to pay for transport services and to support culture, skills, economic growth and safer communities.
Large revenue funds include £67 million from the Education & Skills Funding Agency, and £55 million from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and our Transport Levy £92 million.
The Transport Levy is collected by our partner councils through council tax and we use it to support and maintain our transport network, to keep fares affordable and to support bus routes and services that aren’t covered by commercial providers. To keep costs to a minimum, the Transport Levy has not changed for over 10 years.
We spend £37.5 million on concessionary travel schemes (ENCTS), £10.9 million on subsidised travel for young people and £29 million on other tendered services.
In 2025 we are planning to review how we apply our current school transport policy to school transport services commencing in the September 2025/26 academic year. We will share opportunities to have your say on school transport in the new year.
How we spend our money
In 2024-25, we committed to investing in our transport system to connect communities, and to tackling the climate emergency. We also invested in growth areas that are not funded through council tax, such as business, employment and skills.
In 2024-25, our largest spending included:
- £419 million – growing transport infrastructure
- £135 million – transport services
- £100 million – skills and better jobs for people
- £62 million – growing businesses
- £55 million – housing growth infrastructure
- £28 million – energy and environmental resilience
Below is an overview of our income and expenditure in 2024-25:
Shaping our plans
Our ambitious plans mean we have some challenging decisions to make on how we spend our budget for the next year.
The majority of our budget can only be spent on specific projects and programmes, as part of the conditions of receiving the funding from central Government.
Our discretionary budget, which includes Transport Levy funding and Gainshare funding has more flexibility.
Our Transport Levy funding in 2025/26 is £92 million of which £37.5 million is committed to funding concessionary travel schemes for older and disabled people, leaving £54.5 million discretionary funding available to support transport priorities in 2025/26. This funding is currently spent on subsidised travel for young people and on other tendered services (where we contract bus services to private companies who bid to run them).
Our flexible revenue funding (including gainshare) is £70.3 million of which £33.7 million is already committed to existing projects and programmes which will deliver outcomes across the region. This will leave £36.6 million of discretionary funding in 2025/26 to support other priorities in 2025/26 including skills and employment and business support.
Pressures
The budget pressures we face are summarised below. You can read more about the pressures in our Business Planning and Budgets paper which was discussed at the Combined Authority meeting on 12 December 2024.
Transport pressures
- Costs of continuing with the Mayor’s Fares scheme
- Bus franchising (taking buses back under public control)
- The retention of school bus services
- Cost pressure assumptions on the retention of Bus Service Improvement Plan funded routes
- The shared transport capital programmes as a result of inflation and scope increase
- Local contribution to the mass transit programme over the construction period and beyond
Employment and Skills pressures
- Ensuring residents have the skills to secure employment
- Simplifying technical education pathways
- Addressing underemployment and high level skills deficits
Business pressures
- Significant investment is required to enable the region to grow, with initial scoping work identifying costs in the range of £53m to £93m over the next three years.
- Specific and intensive support to help those that have received less help
Regeneration and Place pressures
- Lack of core funding to support regeneration, place and climate projects
Culture, Heritage and Sport pressures
- An inadequate culture, heritage and sport infrastructure in West Yorkshire
- Cultural venues need investment to decarbonise, and to also be more disability friendly
- Investment needed to capitalise on the legacy of Years of Culture
We will have spoken to many of you about our plans and priorities at local events or through consultation and engagement activity and surveys, including our recent survey on bus fares for under 19s which has helped inform our proposals. Thank you to everyone that has helped shape our plans and priorities so far.
Our partners are also experiencing challenges with their budgets. You can find out about our district partners’ budgets and engagement on their websites:
During 2025 there will also be more opportunities to have your say on our proposals, with further consultations taking place throughout the year.
You can join our Your Voice community to receive information on opportunities to have your say on our projects.
Have your say
We’d like to hear what’s important to you to help us decide how we spend the budget. Please share your views by Sunday 5 January 2025.
You can have your say by:
- Answering our survey
- Asking a question using our Q&A tool
- Email: yourvoice@westyorks-ca.gov.uk
- Telephone: 0113 245 7676 (MetroLine)
- Write to us: FREEPOST Consultation Team WYCA (no stamp required)
You can also have your say on the Police budget in West Yorkshire.
Next steps
Our budget for 2025-2026 will be agreed at the 30 January 2025 meeting of the Combined Authority.
If you’d like to find out more about our work, please visit our website.
Thank you for your contribution!
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