SOME of England's biggest cities outside of London are to be given significant extra powers and money.

And Kirklees will benefit as the Leeds Region is one of those joining the scheme.

The cities believe the agreements will create 175,000 jobs over the next 20 years and 37,000 new apprenticeships.

Kirklees Council is one of 11 partner councils to benefit from the deal, which grants unprecedented control over spending and decision making, helping businesses grow and ensuring future investment.

The six ‘city deals’ are for Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham and Sheffield, with deals for Liverpool and Manchester already agreed.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, inset, called them “groundbreaking deals, freeing cities from Whitehall control”.

He said: “Everyone in these eight core cities will feel the benefits – from young people looking for jobs, to businesses looking to expand.”

Kirklees Council leader Clr Mehboob Khan welcomed the announcement. The partnership will put in place a £1bn local fund to be used for investment in public transport and the highways network and a further £400m fund to modernise infrastructure across the city region.

In Kirklees this is expected to attract new investment to be targeted at strategic transport priorities such as Cooper Bridge and the A644 in order to increase economic growth and create much needed jobs.

Clr Khan said: “The City Deal announcement is not only hugely significant for the city region but it also extremely positive for the people of Kirklees. Over the last 12 months we have been at the forefront of developing and supporting this initiative.”

Benefits are set to include:

Faster, reliable transport connections to centres and areas of employment through a 10-year £1bn ‘West Yorkshire-Plus’ Transport Fund.

Traffic improvements around the A644 at Cooper Bridge, opening up the area for business development.

Creating 7,500 new apprenticeships through the Apprenticeship Academy and Apprenticeship Hubs which will generate significant benefits for Kirklees College, for example utilising the new state-of-the-art engineering facility.

A city region investment fund of £400m over the next 10 years which is very positive for Kirklees businesses which have enjoyed recent success in securing Regional Growth Fund monies to fund specific projects around development and technical improvements.