Harry Harrison spoke with South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard about the new Labour budget which included a mention for Sheffield Supertram.
The Mayor discussed his thoughts on Rachel Reeves' first budget, as well as new pots of money for him with "less red tape" and enjoying 1p off of pints after cuts to draught duty.
Watch The Star's quick post-budget interview with the Mayor.
The Mayor discussed his thoughts on Rachel Reeves' first budget, as well as new pots of money for him with "less red tape" and enjoying 1p off of pints after cuts to draught duty.
Watch The Star's quick post-budget interview with the Mayor.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Reactions to the Chancellor's first budget?
00:03Well look, I think we all know the Chancellor inherited a really tough hand
00:06and yet I think she's played it incredibly well. It's good for the
00:09country, the growth rate goes up as a result of the budget and it's good for
00:12South Yorkshire. Not only money for things like SuperTram but the so-called
00:16single pot settlement which gives people like me more freedom, more flexibility
00:20over the money we spend here. It's good news for our region.
00:22Well we'll go straight into SuperTram then because that's a lot of money for city region
00:27transits that we've had mentioned, SuperTram being one of them of course.
00:31What are your hopes for that money and for the future of SuperTram then?
00:35Well look, first and foremost we have to invest in the network so that it is safe
00:37and secure and so it works efficiently and effectively and that's about renewal,
00:40that's about the new tracks, the new overhead lines, hopefully in time new
00:44trams as well. But I'm hugely ambitious for SuperTram. It should run right across
00:47South Yorkshire, we should extend the network wherever we can and what we've
00:51seen now is a government prepared to invest in South Yorkshire's mass
00:53transit network and we're entering into conversations and negotiations about how
00:57much further we can go.
00:58I know there's been conversations about looking into the feasibility of tram train extensions to Stocksbridge and Barrow Hill.
01:04How are you feeling about those? Is there any progress on those?
01:07Yeah, really positive because look, today we've seen the government are prepared to invest in
01:11South Yorkshire's SuperTram network and that is just a down payment I hope on
01:14the future. We're working with Sheffield Council, we're working right across the
01:17MCA region, right across South Yorkshire to work out those plans on South
01:21Yorkshire's SuperTram extension. That's really exciting, it's not been extended
01:25meaningfully, it's gone out to Rotherham and was going to go out to Magna but
01:29it's not been extended elsewhere for nearly 30 years so really excited
01:33about that. It's a big opportunity not just for our SuperTram network but for
01:36the productivity of South Yorkshire for connecting up people to opportunity.
01:41And these more flexible I guess, bits of funding for you as a regional mayor, what are your hopes for that as well?
01:46What really needs addressing here?
01:48Well essentially what that does is at the moment we get loads of pots of money and we've got loads of
01:51different rules that are associated with each of those pots. What this does is
01:54take that off so we get all that money or large parts of that money in one lump
01:59sum, we get to spend that in the way that we want to spend it on the
02:01priorities that we have as a region. So it gives me more flexibility and more
02:05freedom but in response to the needs that our communities have. So it's a
02:08really good day, it means that we have that flexibility and freedom and we can
02:12focus on those priorities that we have as a region.
02:14Less red tape, I think.
02:15I hope so, I hope so.
02:16I wanted to just touch on trains again, it was very transport focused for me at the minute but I think the
02:21Chancellor mentioned a lot of rail upgrades, particularly over the Pennines, a lot of them
02:26affecting Greater Manchester but didn't seem to get a mention in South Yorkshire
02:29where our trains aren't very good either. Is that disappointing?
02:31Well look, Manchester has a specific set of problems and they've been talking about
02:35those for a long time now. We're now talking to government, talking through
02:39TfN, in fact I was on a meeting with TfN as the budget was going on about what
02:42our challenges look like in our region. Some of those changes and challenges
02:46affect us, for instance if you want to go from Sheffield now to Manchester
02:49Airport you have to change at Manchester and that's because of the
02:52track capacity and the platform capacity at Manchester so
02:55this is a system, if you want to fix one part of it you kind of have to fix all
02:58of it. I'm pleased that Manchester's getting more investment, we're talking
03:01to the government about the investment that we need here but ultimately we need
03:04to fix that whole system if all of that system is going to work effectively for
03:07South Yorkshire.
03:08Awesome, and to finish then, will you be taking advantage of the penny off your pints in the pub this week?
03:13I think I'll need to after the week that we've had but look it's really good news, we'll be celebrating Rachel and the
03:18budget today and having a pint and I hope everybody else does too.