The Mayor of York and North Yorkshire has come under fire after backing the government’s policy of targeting extra funding at deprived areas — a move which critics say has seen his own region lose out.
Speaking at a North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting this week, Mayor David Skaith said the government was “quite rightly realigning funding” to areas with high levels of deprivation.
Leaders of Conservative-controlled North Yorkshire Council have repeatedly accused the Labour government of diverting money from rural areas with less deprivation to urban town and cities.
This week, council chiefs said the authority had suffered a “£43m wallop” in cuts from central government, which had left it needing to make efficiency savings and use its reserves to run services.
Labour-run City of York Council has also reported cuts following the release of its three-year settlement, with Liberal Democrat opposition leaders saying £14.1m in funding is being “stripped away” from the city every year by the government.
Although more information is awaited from the government, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority says the force is facing an unexpected funding cut of £2.6m for 2026/27.
The Mayor was asked about the impact on services of funding cuts faced by North Yorkshire Police at the meeting on Wednesday.
The Mayor confirmed the force was facing funding cuts and said the combined authority was using a “joined-up approach” to nullify their impact.
He said this involved making sure they were working with the combined authority, both local authorities and others to “make sure that the money we do have is being targeted in the right place and we are getting the most out of it”.
“We have an opportunity to actually target things a different way,” he said.
“I think we all probably realise that you don’t always want a police officer going into a certain situation. Sometimes working with community groups and organisations is the best way forward.”
On the issue of funding, he added: “We know York and North Yorkshire generally speaking does always kind of get overlooked for funding as well, because of the fact we don’t have the population density and the high levels of deprivation that other areas do see and obviously government is quite rightly realigning funding more towards high levels of deprivation.
“That said, we know in York and North Yorkshire we have those real deep challenging pockets of deprivation — at times it’s almost street to street.
“So we have to focus on working with organisations who are on the ground, who are better in communities.”
Speaking after the meeting, North Yorkshire Council leader Carl Les said he disagreed with the mayor that it was right for the government “realign” funding.
He added: “I don’t have a problem with the government saying that they want to address deprivation, we would all want to address deprivation.
“Where I have an issue is that they are taking money away from rural areas to give to areas of deprivation.
“What I don’t like is the competition between deprivation or rural costs. I keep saying a rising tide would float all boats.
“Deprivation is an important issue, but so is the cost of delivering services in rural areas and those two factors should be on the same spectrum.”
North Yorkshire Conservative councillor Keane Duncan, who was defeated by Mr Skaith at the 2024 York and North Yorkshire mayoral election, said the mayor’s comments confirmed that the area was being “actively deprived of funding” under a Labour government.
He added: “More concerning still is his belief that this is right and justified.
“Supporting areas with high deprivation is vital – but it should never mean writing off rural communities like ours or expecting us to accept less simply because of where we live.”
Cllr Duncan added: “By failing to challenge the government, the Mayor is leaving York and North Yorkshire at a clear disadvantage – with residents paying the price through service cuts he promised to end.”
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