An excerpt from Mayor of York & North Yorkshire David Skaith’s keynote speech at the Oxford Conferences’ Welcome Dinner 2026.

Farming isn’t just another industry for us in York and North Yorkshire. It’s the backbone of our landscape, our towns, and our way of life. It’s written into our history – in the dry-stone walls, in the market towns, in the rolling fields and winding lanes.

I’m not a farmer, my background is in retail and hospitality, not agriculture. But I’ve been clear, when I was elected Mayor, I knew I had to speak up for the whole region – and that includes speaking up for the people who feed us, steward out land, and keep our rural communities alive.

I’ve found that there is huge power in a mayor’s ability to bring people together.

And that is crucial because given the extent of the challenges facing farms, and the need to act with urgency, bringing people together and forming a shared vision is at the very heart of everything I am doing.

We’ve already started that work, through our Grow Yorkshire partnership, that brings together local stakeholders and national organisations such as the NFU and CLA.

We’re already:

• Supporting sustainable farm initiatives, offering funded advice on practical, farm-focused solutions.

• Delivering agricultural business training.

• And securing investment to explore how we can attract natural capital funding – investment that restores and sustains our land, water, and wildlife.

Going forward, I am looking to strengthen our Grow Yorkshire Partnership.

The renewed partnership will be tasked with building a bridge.

Not over the River Ouse in York, it’ll bridge the gap between where we are now, and the future of farming in York and North Yorkshire that we want to see.

That bridge will be built from four key parts.

Holding the bridge together, will be strengthening the economic resilience of our farms. Without it, our other ambitions are just not possible.

Over Christmas, whilst others were getting stuck into a new novel, or watching their favourite Christmas film, I was tucking into Minette Batters’ recently released Farming Profitability Review.

Its wide-ranging nation-wide recommendations are very welcome and set out a clear route towards supporting our farming community.

In York and North Yorkshire, we will be looking at how we can play a role to implement these locally and support efforts at a national level.

This will be in addition to our local approach, focussing on the specific York and North Yorkshire priorities, identifying ways to improve the profitability of farms.

The next stone in the bridge is environmental sustainability and food security.

It is hard to not emphasise how each of these stones intertwine with each other. It is not about choosing farming, or environmental sustainability, but about harnessing the vast potential that lies at the crossroads of both.

When we embrace both, we create real, lasting opportunities for our farming communities.

That's why we'll be backing regenerative farming practices that restore soil health, enhance biodiversity, and build resilience into our food systems.

We'll be promoting agri-tech and on-farm sustainability, recognising that our farmers are innovators who deserve access to the tools and technologies that can transform their work.

We've set ourselves a bold target: to become the first carbon negative region in England.

It's ambitious, but it's also achievable if we recognise one fundamental truth: our farming communities must be right at the centre of the decision making, not on the sidelines.

The next part of the bridge we’re building in York and North Yorkshire is about creating healthy and thriving rural communities.

I’ve heard from farmers, and studies show, that there are very specific challenges facing farmers accessing health care.

It’s a tough job, both physically and mentally, and the challenges accessing support has a compounding impact.

Combine this with the pressures that rurality adds to crime, with farmers more likely to be targeted by organised crime gangs, and rates of domestic violence being higher in rural areas, it is clear to me that any plan to support our farming communities must tackle these issues.

The partnership will be key to informing how we take on these issues and provide insight into the steps we can take to tackle the health, wellbeing and public safety challenges, facing farming and rural communities.

The final stone of our bridge focusses on supporting our farming and wider community to innovate and develop the skills needed to succeed.

There is a huge amount of opportunity for farmers and the rural economy to innovate, yet too many face barriers when seeking the skills and knowledge needed to unlock it.

Accessing quality training is difficult. Distance, time pressures, and fragmented provision create challenges for both farmers and those entering the sector.

This cannot continue if we want a thriving, sustainable farming community.

By investing in innovation and skills together, we're supporting in resilient farms, a sustainable countryside, and food security for generations to come.

Taken together, there is great reason to be optimistic in our region, and that’s because we’re making the most of devolution.

We’re ambitious and bold, and we’re getting the right people around the table to make a real and lasting difference for farms, the food system, and rural communities across York and North Yorkshire.

When I took up this role, I was clear: we can’t design farming policy from above and expect it to work. We need to design it with farmers, not do it to them.

That consensus and coming together with a single vision in mind will help us shift the dial for farming in York and North Yorkshire.

My job isn’t, and will never be, to pretend to have all the answers. It’s about bringing people together, backing the people who know the land best, and making sure York and North Yorkshire remains a proud farming county for generations to come.

I'm supporting farmers and land managers to make decisions that work for their land. Because nobody understands our region's fields, valleys, and hills better than the people who work them every day.

That’s the difference devolution will make for the food system and farming in York and North Yorkshire. We’re not reinventing the wheel.

Where things are working, we’ll back it, and where there are gaps, we will fill them.