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Mayors and combined authorities

West Yorkshire

Councils in West Yorkshire working together on things that cross their borders, led by a mayor everyone in the area can vote for.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) is an Established Mayoral Strategic Authority with the functions and funding associated with that tier.

The mayor

Tracy Brabin Labour and Co-operative Party

Elected on 2 May 2024.

Source: Democracy Club, Mayor of West Yorkshire (CC BY 4.0), read 26 October 2026. This is who won the most recent mayoral election; if the post has changed hands since without an election, this page won’t know yet.

Next mayoral election: Democracy Club hasn’t listed it yet.

What the government says about the next election

The Mayor is elected on a 4 year term. The most recent election was in May 2024 with the next election scheduled for 2028. This will be done by Supplementary Vote, as will further elections.

What it decides

The law gives every authority of this kind powers under these headings:

Headings as printed in the government’s Devolution Framework Explainer: Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities (Open Government Licence v3.0), which lists each power under them. Which of them this authority uses, and how, is in its own papers.

Do all combined authorities do the same things?

The specifics of the powers of MSAs vary from place to place but typically include aspects of transport, skills, housing, and local infrastructure investment, and in some cases spatial planning, policing, health and employment support.

Police

Police and Crime Commissioner functions for West Yorkshire are the responsibility of the Mayor of WYCA.

Fire and rescue

As WYCA’s geography aligns with Fire and Rescue Authority boundaries, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill will enable WYCA to become the Fire and Rescue Authority for the area, subject to secondary legislation.

What’s different about how it is run

At the time of publication, we do not expect WYCA to have any distinctive governance arrangements.

WYCA will retain some different powers in relation to education; bus operator grants; roadworks; traffic regulation; and traffic signs and crossings. WYCA also holds the powers of the former Passenger Transport Executive for its area.

Councils in its area

Its constituent councils are Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield.

Every council in its area:

From the ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to Combined Authority lookup (LAD25_CAUTH25_EN_LU) (Open Government Licence v3.0), read 26 October 2026.

Website
westyorks-ca.gov.uk (from mySociety; the site turned our reader away, so the links below couldn't be read)
Meetings and decisions
Not yet read.
Budget
Not yet read.
The mayor's page
Not yet read.
The mayor on Democracy Club
Tracy Brabin
Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every authority page has the same sections in the same order. Sources: MHCLG, English devolution: Area factsheets (Open Government Licence v3.0); MHCLG, Devolution Framework Explainers (Open Government Licence v3.0); ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to Combined Authority lookup (LAD25_CAUTH25_EN_LU) (Open Government Licence v3.0); ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to County and Unitary Authority lookup (LAD25_CTYUA25_EW_LU_v2) (Open Government Licence v3.0); Democracy Club, EveryElection (CC BY 4.0); Democracy Club candidates (CC BY 4.0); mySociety, UK Local Authorities, with WhatDoTheyKnow home pages (CC BY 4.0 / CC BY-SA 4.0); Wikidata, official website (P856) (CC0). Parish and town councils are not covered yet. Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.