About My Region

Geography

The Yorkshire and Humber region comprises:

• the county of North Yorkshire;
• the unitary authorities of York, Kingston Upon Hull, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire; and
• the metropolitan counties of South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.

Most of the region’s five million people live in west or south Yorkshire, with many in Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford.

Regional Development Agency

Yorkshire Forward is the regional development agency charged with improving the economy. One of its primary targets is reducing greenhouse gas emissions and there is a strong focus on sustainable development.

There is an environment directorate and a director of sustainable development.

Economy

The Yorkshire and Humber region is in a period of transition, from reliance on heavy industry to a more diverse economy.

The growth sectors of the Yorkshire economy include:

• digital industries;
• environmental technologies;
• financial services;
• construction;
• retail;
• real estate; and
• public services.
   

Priority business clusters

The region’s seven priority business clusters include:

• digital industries,
• advanced engineering and metals,
• food and drink, and
• environment technologies.

Yorkshire Forward is developing a strategy and action plan for key sub-sectors of the environmental technology industries in the region.

This will focus on clusters of companies where there are particular strengths and potential to grow and attract innovative businesses.

This will also make a significant contribution to the sustainable economic development agenda and environmental performance in the region.

Key sectors and recycling

The financial services sector makes significant purchases of office paper and printed materials. This could provide opportunities to work with this sector to improve purchase of recycled paper.

There is also potential to work with the retail sector for example to increase recycled content in packaging, as major firms such as ASDA have head offices based in the region.

Opportunities to increase recyclate collections from the food and drink sector can also be explored and in terms of construction sector the increased use of recycled content in construction products and recycling of waste from this industry.