Sheffield City Region

The Sheffield City Region is an area of England centred on Sheffield. It was one of eight city regions defined in the 2004 document Moving Forward: The Northern Way, as a collaboration between the three northern Regional Development Agencies.

The Sheffield City region has a population of 1,819,500 as of 2004 with an area of 3,517.84 km2 and a population density of 517.22 and includes the following local government districts:

• South Yorkshire:
  • Sheffield
  • Rotherham
  • Doncaster
  • Barnsley
• Derbyshire:
  • Chesterfield
  • North East Derbyshire
  • Bolsover
  • Derbyshire Dales
• Nottinghamshire:
  • Bassetlaw

This covers the entirety of the metropolitan county of South Yorkshire, and also adding four districts from north Derbyshire, and one district from northern Nottinghamshire.

Other than Doncaster and parts of Derbyshire Dales, nearly all this area lies within the Sheffield postcode area. The region has good transport links to Sheffield City Centre, where many of the region's workforce are employed. It is unique amongst the eight city regions defined by the Northern Way in that it lies in two separate Government Regions.

Of areas close to Sheffield, the city region does not include the Hope Valley, which is part of the Sheffield Postcode area and would generally be regarded as part of the Sheffield area by outsiders and locals due to Mam Tor acting as a physical barrier from the Manchester City Region.

In September 2006, the Local Authorities comprising the Sheffield City Region launched the Sheffield City Region Development Programme. This set outs out how the local authorities believe that by working together as a city region they could increase the economic output of the area by 12.6% by 2016. It also describes governance structures for the city region, including a City Region Forum (consisting of the Leaders of each of the constituent authorities, including the two county councils and the Peak District National Park Authority, along with observers from the two Regional Development Agencies and Government Offices covering the city region). The City Region Forum has since been formally established, and has resolved to set up four thematic Joint Issue Boards to take forward some of the propositions made in the City Region Development Programme. The four Joint Issue Boards cover the following issues:

1. Transport
2. Residential Offer (Housing Supply and Demand)
3. Destination Management (Tourism and Inward Investment)
4. Knowledge Economy and Innovation

The region began its work properly in 2008, with a development forum created. This is to be headed up by Sylvia Yates, the former director of South Yorkshire Objective One European grants programme before the European funding was lost.