Former PWC director is promising more social housing, a mass insulation scheme and private rented sector regulation
Labour’s Richard Parker is pledging to build an extra 20,000 homes in the West Midlands by 2031 after winning the region’s mayoral election by a whisker.
Parker, who previously worked on housing finance and local government issues for professional services giant PWC, won 225,590 votes in last week’s poll, just 1,508 more than Conservative incumbent Andy Street.
In his manifesto Parker pledged to boost housebuilding and strengthen regulation of the private rented sector.
Parker said that he will “work with a Labour government, councils and builders” to increase its annual target to 19,000 homes, which would equate to an extra 20,000 in the region by 2031. He has also pledged to support social landlords to build at least 2,000 “council and social homes” per year by 2028.
He has pointed out Street has built no homes for social rent in his two terms in office, implying that the social homes he will deliver will be for social rent, as opposed to other social housing tenures, such as affordable rent, intermediate rent or shared ownership.
He said: “The construction of social and genuinely affordable homes, which we will fully champion, will be at the heart of our plans to fix the housing crisis, with development corporations providing capacity, support and expertise to councils.”
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Parker has also vowed to bring in a West Midlands Renters Charter “to drive up standards and protect people from rogue landlords” and to introduce a mass insulation scheme.
He said: “We will train the people with the skills to deliver this as part of our jobs and industry programme. We will pioneer Labour’s green investment fund in the West Midlands and leverage funding to insulate thousands of homes and cut bills for those that need it most.”
Elsewhere in the mayoral elections, Sadiq Khan was won a third term in London with a swing of 3.2%, while Andy Burnham was re-elected with a landslide vote in greater Manchester. Conservative incumbent Ben Houchen hung on to win a third term in Tees Valley.
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