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Housing associations welcome new West Midlands mayor’s social rent plans
Housing associations in the West Midlands have said they are ready to work with new metro mayor Richard Parker to deliver his social housebuilding plans.
The Labour challenger defeated Conservative Andy Street, who had held the office for seven years, by just over 1,500 votes.
As mayor, Mr Parker has promised to build 2,000 social rent homes a year by 2028, which he said would add up to 20,000 in total by the end of the decade.
Gary Fulford, group chief executive of WHG, congratulated Mr Parker on his election victory.
“With thousands of people in desperate need of housing across the region, it is good news that Mr Parker has put building more social housing at the top of his priority list,” he told Inside Housing.
“We look forward to working with him and playing our part in tackling the housing crisis.”
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Mr Fulford also paid tribute to Andy Street, describing him as “a brilliant mayor for our region”.
“He has made a big difference unlocking key sites, like our Lockside development in Walsall,” he said.
John Wade, director of strategy at Bromford, said: “The need for more affordable housing, and particularly homes for social rent, was a welcome focus of the West Midlands mayoral election campaign.
“As one of the leading developers of homes for social rent over the past few years, we support Richard Parker’s plan to see 2,000 new social rent homes being built every year by 2028 and look forward to playing our part in helping deliver them.”
A spokesperson for Midland Heart said: “We have obviously watched the campaign for West Midlands mayor very closely and were delighted to see how central social housing was to the debate. We welcome Richard’s focus on social rent and his ambition to deliver a step change in the development of new, truly affordable homes.
“We were also very happy to see a commitment to work with our sector to deliver a housing court in the region in his manifesto.
“We would also like to thank Richard’s predecessor Andy Street for his support over the last six years.”
Rachael Williamson, head of policy and external affairs at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “It’s really encouraging to see so many of the regional mayors identify housing, and specifically the provision of social rented housing, as a priority area for their new or re-elected tenures.”
She added: “We’re urging all political parties and their representatives to recognise affordable and quality housing as a foundation for a healthy society and economy.”
Speaking to Inside Housing on the eve of his victory last week, Mr Parker said: “Most housing associations have already got large-scale programmes of affordable [homes]. And we’ve got 64,000 people on waiting lists for social housing and 20,000 families in temporary accommodation.
“So my focus is changing those metrics as soon as possible and meeting need where it’s most acute.”
The West Midlands Housing Association Partnership, a group of 17 landlords in the region, called on the mayoral candidates to deliver an “ambitious” devolved affordable homes programme with funding for regeneration and retrofit.
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