Written questions by Botterill.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that new Mayors are accountable to their local areas.

Within Mayoral Combined Authorities and Mayoral Combined County Authorities there is an existing system of accountability and scrutiny arrangements. This system ensures that public spending is achieving value for money. In the English Devolution White Paper the government set out how it plans to go further and the government’s commitment to strengthening the accountability and scrutiny arrangements of Mayors and the Combined Authorities as greater powers, duties and resources are devolved.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on using local growth funding to help increase economic growth in West Yorkshire.

The Department’s Ministerial team has had a range of discussions with Ministerial colleagues in His Majesty’s Treasury as well as the Mayor of West Yorkshire and the Combined Authority about their priorities and plans, as part of the Government’s mission to empower local leaders to drive economic growth. We are working with the area to identify shared priorities for growth through the Local Growth Plan and are providing West Yorkshire with over £1.14 billion of funding over 30 years to support growth and business investment.