South Yorkshire Chambers are calling on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to back up her ‘warm words’ about supporting Doncaster Sheffield Airport with tangible actions.
Reacting to her pledge to support the development of Doncaster Sheffield Airport the three South Yorkshire Chambers have issued a cautiously optimistic statement, whilst also emphasising the need for warm words to translate into tangible action.
The Chancellor has announced that Government will be working closely with South Yorkshire politicians to support the region’s ambitions for its soon-to-be-rebooted international airport.
The Chief Execs for the three South Yorkshire Chambers representing Doncaster, Sheffield and Barnsley & Rotherham jointly commented:
“We, of course, welcome Government’s support for the airport and by extension South Yorkshire. Only a few days ago, our umbrella body, the British Chambers of Commerce, drew up a list of important infrastructure projects to try and get them on the Chancellor’s radar; believing that, if these are properly invested in, they will help get the UK’s economy moving in the right direction again. Many different opportunities for growth were highlighted here, so it’s encouraging to see that, even amidst all of that, the need to support DSA still stood out as a priority.
“The Chancellor may have caused an unnecessary amount of pain and consternation for businesses with her Autumn Budget, but this — along with all of the other announcements from yesterday’s speech — signals that there might be some mid-term gains on the horizon for the economy.
“That being said, many will understandably want to wait and see if Westminster can actually deliver on these warm words, given that we have been here before. Indeed, we heard similar pledges from some of the Chancellor’s predecessors in Government — including from previous Secretaries of State and even a former Prime Minister — only for the promised support to never materialise beyond, of course, the welcome confirmation of Investment Zone status here in South Yorkshire.
“We hope that this time around will be different, and that central Government will be able to match the entrepreneurialism and tenacity that our public sector partners in the local and mayoral combined authorities have demonstrated throughout this hard-fought campaign.”
