The Chancellor, George Osborne, is in the Bradford district today to unveil plans to boost the Yorkshire economy. Here he explains how...

I’m in Yorkshire today with a simple message for readers of the Telegraph & Argus: for too long we have had an unbalanced economy that left some parts of the country behind. I am determined that this time we will ensure a truly national recovery.

We are now seeing that recovery here in Yorkshire. Private sector employment is growing at a faster rate than anywhere outside London.

There are 114,000 more people in work here than there were in 2010 – that’s 114,000 more people with the security of a regular pay packet being able to provide for their families. In Bradford alone, there are 18,300 more people in work than there were in 2010.

Today I am setting out how we build on that, with our Long Term Economic Plan for Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire.

This plan sets out an ambition to add an extra £13 billion to the economy here in real terms by 2030, equivalent to £2,000 per person, by increasing the long term growth rate of Yorkshire to at least the long term growth rate of the whole of the UK.

And if we sustain the current high rate of job creation, we can get over 100,000 more people into employment across Yorkshire by the end of the next Parliament.

We will achieve this by backing great Yorkshire businesses, and the jobs they create – and our plan today shows how we do this. First we need to invest in modern transport. Kris Hopkins, the Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, has been a staunch champion for better transport in Yorkshire.

We’re already spending more on our roads than we have since the 1970s – and more on our railways than we have since the Victorians. But in the next Parliament we will go further with the largest investment in transport in Yorkshire in modern history.

On top of the high speed rail links to the south and across the north, we will make the M62 four lanes over the Pennines. We’ll also increase speeds on the East Coast Mainline to 140 mph – things that will make a real difference to families, commuters, businesses and visitors.

Our plan means investing in advanced materials research in Leeds and Sheffield and supporting tech start-ups in West Yorkshire – championed by the local Conservative MP for Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough, Stuart Andrew. And it means making new investments to ensure that local people can get the high skills they need to secure great careers.

And we’re backing tourism too across this beautiful part of the country. Yorkshire was recently ranked as one of the top places in the world to visit – and it’s no surprise with the Yorkshire Dales, Haworth, Ilkley, Saltaire and much more to explore.

Tourism is thriving, but our plan is to go further – to increase overseas visits by a quarter. That means backing a rural tourism campaign, getting behind the Tour de Yorkshire in May, and backing a Yorkshire bid for the World Road Championships. And that’s good news for Yorkshire – it will create at least 2,500 jobs in the area.

Supporting Yorkshire’s business. Creating Jobs. Rebalancing our economy. These are the objectives of the Long Term Economic Plan for Yorkshire that, with your support, will deliver a brighter and more secure future.

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