Selby’s top councillors have backed the York and North Yorkshire devolution deal, despite concerns about the sums of money on offer.

Selby District Council leader Cllr Mark Crane said he hoped it would lead to further investment under the proposed new mayor for the region, who could be elected in May 2024.

City of York Council and North Yorkshire County Council are currently consulting with residents, but have agreed to the deal in principle with the Government.

The £540 million package will see key decision-making powers and funding for transport, education and jobs devolved down from Whitehall.

Cllr Crane said six of the seven North Yorkshire district councils had agreed to the deal, with Harrogate the only objector. The consent of district councils is not required for the deal to go ahead.

Local government reorganisation – which will see all district councils abolished to become part of the new North Yorkshire Council – was a prerequisite for the process to move forward.

Cllr Crane said: “I’m sure it doesn’t give us everything that we want. There was more that, if we were lucky, we may have got – but at the moment we haven’t.

“The hope is that once the devolution deal is signed off, and the new mayor is elected, that person will be able to go to government with ambitious plans for North Yorkshire and to get more from the government coffers for the people of this area.”

Cllr Crane said the deal equated to £20 per resident of the region per year over the term of the 30-year deal, which Cllr David Buckle said “doesn’t seem a lot really”.

The so-called gain-share, which is the money provided by the Government annually for the investment fund, would equate to £23.31 per head of population, according to analysis from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

But according to think tank IPPR North, the deal is worth just under £20 per resident, which is more than West Yorkshire but lower than deals made in places like Liverpool, the Tees Valley and South Yorkshire.

Selby counci’s chief executive Janet Waggott said: “We’re not in the same place as all those deals. They were pre-Covid – costs have gone up.

“The comparisons mask what we can really achieve with that money anyway.”

Selby Labour group leader Cllr Bob Packham questioned whether the amounts would make up for what has been lost in local government due to austerity measures brought in by the government in 2010.

According to the IPPR North, the north of England saw a £413 per person fall on average in annual council service spending in each year between 2009/10 and 2019/20.

“Clearly this, or any investment fund alone, does not come close to the losses communities across the North have experienced because of austerity,” they added.