The region covers an area of 15411 square kilometres from Sheffield to Whitby, Hull to Huddersfield, and has a population of over five million.

As well as thriving towns and cities, Yorkshire and Humber has more National Park land, historic houses and castles than any other region, and boasts spectacular scenery and a Heritage coastline.It’s also one of Europe’s fastest growing regions, and home to more than a quarter of a million companies, many of them from overseas.

But the region now finds itself on the cusp of another potentially tectonic shift in the structures of governance, with the recent demise of Regional Assemblies and the transfer of their key functions, partly to Regional Development Agencies and partly to Local Authorities.

At the time of writing, there are profound tensions showing between the region’s aspirations to develop and regenerate in ways that are economically sustainable, socially equitable and environmentally restorative, and national and global pressures to pursue a rate of economic growth that many believe not to be sustainable or desirable.

It is not for YHREF to comment on the rate of economic growth that might be sustainable or desirable, but macro-economics do provide us with a clear imperative: namely, to propose actions and mechanisms by which the dependence of our long-term prosperity on environmental enhancement can be better understood and utilised, and by which the environment – and the quality of life it confers on the people of the region – can be maintained, restored and enhanced in a way that is less vulnerable to macro-economic changes beyond our control.

The strategies and action plans highlighted to the left are the region's framework for achieving this goal.