Labour’s strategy aims for a local economy which provides great jobs with workers’ rights, not in-work poverty and disempowerment, which harnesses and builds on our people’s creative talents to make a global cultural city. And which achieves growth while minimising congestion and air pollution, for example by attracting peopke back on to public transport.
“Labour want a Leeds economy that works for the many, and not the few.
At the heart of this is our inclusive growth strategy. This sets out how Leeds City Council, the private sector, universities, colleges and schools, the third sector and social enterprises in the city will work together to grow the Leeds economy ensuring that everyone in the city can benefit from the significant growth that is happening.
We are working with anchor institutions – locally rooted organisations such as the universities, hospitals and big businesses – to make a positive contribution to our city. These anchors can embed good practice, workers’ rights and support inclusion to create good jobs in our city.
Leeds must promote a positive, outward looking image on the global stage and seek to increase inward investment, exports and tourism. We’ve seen already how our city is growing positively, with the announcement of Channel 4 coming to Leeds and the successive jobs in the creative sector that followed.
Under Labour, Leeds City Council is fully behind Leeds 2023, a year long celebration of our heritage and culture. Leeds will harness the energy of all the city to celebrate our cultural life. This will transform Leeds into a global cultural city. It will help bring visitors, jobs, new skills and economic growth.
We are proud that under Labour, Leeds City Council is signed up to the TUC’s Great Jobs Agenda. Everyone at work deserves a great job where the worker is paid and treated fairly, with opportunities to progress, to learn and to have a voice on what matters.
Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that two thirds of the households in poverty contain at least one adult that is in work, these families equate to approximately 8 million people across the UK. It is clear that ‘a job, any job’ is no longer a guaranteed route out of poverty. The increased use of zero hour contracts raises concerns about exploitation by some employers and the degree to which workers can assert their employment rights, and a lack of financial stability and security.
Like all major cities in the UK, congestion is increasing and journey times are getting longer. Labour recognises that the growth of commuter traffic is unsustainable and damaging to the environment. Our strategy is to attract people back to public transport and to double bus patronage by 2028, encourage healthy travel options, while making significant investments in the road network.
Work on the new park and ride at Stourton will start this Summer, while extensions are planned for the highly successful park & ride sites at Elland Road and Temple Green. These are already taking 9000 cars a week out of the city centre. Corridor improvements on the A61 both south and north of the city, on the A660, the A647 and the A58 will improve the reliability and speed up the journey times of buses without any adverse impact on other road users. There are plans for new railway stations at Thorpe Park, White Rose and Leeds Bradford Airport.
We are also investing in the road network. Work has started on the East Leeds Orbital Road, the largest infrastructure project in the city for half a century, which will relieve congestion for communities like Cross Gates and Seacroft as well as providing a catalyst for 5,000 new homes in the East Leeds Extension.
A cycle way will connect with new cycling facilities on the Outer Ring Road through to North Leeds. Other improvements in the pipeline include the Armley Gyratory – the Achilles’ heel of transport in the city – and Dawson’s Corner.
In 2011 the Tory-Lib Dem government cancelled a scheme to prevent flooding on the Aire, only to change their minds two years later. On Boxing Day 2015 work was still in progress as floods hit the city, costing the city’s economy more than the flood alleviation scheme.
Since then, the first stage of the innovative Flood Alleviation Scheme has been completed and proposals for the Phase Two have been put to the Tory government, which has refused to fully fund them. Rather than delay the scheme, we are pressing ahead with a limited scheme while continuing to fight for additional funding to deliver the entirety of the proposals.
We won’t give up until we have delivered the full Aire proposals, which will involve massive tree planting In the Aire catchment and a large area to hold flood water.
Work is also continuing on flood prevention in Otley and a number of solutions to localised flooding.”
On May 2 – vote to Keep Leeds Labour.
Here in Leeds NW – vote Neil Walshaw in Headingley and Hyde Park, James Gibson in Weetwood, Nigel Gill in Adel and Wharfedale, Elliot Nathan in Otley and Yeadon
Leeds North West Constituency 