Growth plans will regenerate West Midlands, says Rayner
Building affordable homes, investing in businesses, and equipping young people with skills are to be the focus of a new growth plan for the West Midlands, mayor Richard Parker announced this evening.
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
The elected mayor for the West Midlands was speaking after being given the go-ahead by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to draw up plan to boost the region's growth.
Mrs Rayner this evening announced new shared priorities with regional mayors across the country as the first step towards delivering local growth plans.
Mrs Rayner said collaboration between central government and regional mayors would ensure that regional needs were taken into account in Government decisions and policymaking.
The plans will look at improving transport and access to employment.
Mrs Rayner said increasing business and housing density in key urban centres such as Birmingham, to enable a more complex and diverse economy.
She said: “No time has been wasted getting local growth plans into action, because we know local leaders are best placed to make decisions that better lives in their communities.
“These shared priorities now signed and sealed will ensure a sharp strategic focus for bringing local growth plans to life, helping communities truly feel the benefits of devolved power and putting money in the pockets of working people across the country as part of our plan for change.”
Mrs Rayner said, following months of partnership working across numerous Whitehall departments to identify important opportunities and challenges to unlocking regional growth, new shared priorities bespoke to each region were agreed in letters to mayors across the country.
She said the growth plans, which will be published later in the year, would form the bedrock of the Government's plans to bolster the economy.
Mr Parker said: “I want to unlock our region’s potential and make it the best place in the UK to live, learn and do business. The government is backing my plan with more powers and funding so I can deliver the change our residents and businesses need.
“That means building affordable homes, investing in businesses to help them innovate and grow, and equipping our young people with the skills they need to seize new opportunities.
“I’m already delivering with funding for key Investment Zone sites, set to create 30,000 advanced manufacturing jobs in health tech and green industries. I’ve also unlocked land for more social housing and given 53,000 local people skills and employment support so they can begin their journeys into work and fulfilling careers."
