Devolution deal for Hull and East Riding announced in Autumn Statement

The proposed devolution deal will now be discussed by both councils before a public consultation

A devolution deal for Hull and the East Riding has been announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

The plan would see an elected mayor given control over funding for housing, job creation and public transport, including bus franchising.

The announcement was welcomed by the area's two councils who will now discuss the deal before it is put out for public consultation in January.

If approved, the new authority and mayor could start in May 2025.

The new Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) would get more than £13m a year to invest in the region.

There would be additional funding of around £25m for investment in flood defences, public transport, affordable housing and to develop the local economy, the government said.

According to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities the MCA would get "new powers to improve and better integrate local transport, including the ability to introduce bus franchising, and control of appropriate local transport functions".

It also includes a "commitment to rail electrification between Hull and Sheffield, and Hull and Leeds, integrating East Yorkshire into the Northern Powerhouse Rail network".

Other devolved authorities have already introduced bus franchising, with Greater Manchester taking control of local services in September.

Hull City Council leader Mike Ross said the deal would "help meet the needs of the city and East Yorkshire"

East Riding of Yorkshire Council leader Anne Handley said she was confident it was the "right deal to begin our devolution journey".

"After months of hard work, I am absolutely thrilled that we can finally say we have a proposed deal and our residents can see what Hull and East Yorkshire devolution would really mean to them," she said.

"I have said all along that a Mayoral Combined Authority is absolutely the right way forward for our region, but that it must be the right deal. "

Bus franchising could be introduced across the region

Mike Ross, Hull City Council leader, said: "I have always said that I would only want to proceed with a devolution deal for Hull and the East Riding if we felt it was going to be the best deal for the area.

"It is clear, after a lot of hard work putting the case forward for what this area needs, that we have managed to get the government to put forward a deal that will help meet the needs of the city and East Yorkshire."

The city's Labour opposition described the deal as a "grubby plan".

The party said: "Labour doesn't believe that another layer of local government is what the people of this area want or need, especially as we are being shoehorned into one during the fag-end dying days of a failed Tory government."

Last year, plans for a devolution deal were rejected by the two authorities' leaders.