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West Midlands mayor pledges to target delivery of social homes if re-elected
Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), pledged to set out a numerical commitment for social housing in his manifesto in order to create “a new hope” for the tenure.
Mr Street has pledged to target the delivery of more social housing if he is re-elected as mayor of West Midlands later this year.
He was first elected West Midlands mayor for the Conservatives in 2017 and then was re-elected in 2021.
In a speech to the Switchee Summit in Dudley on Wednesday, Mr Street said that quickening the pace of social housing development was the only way that the “scourge of temporary accommodation” could be properly tackled across the region.
Inside Housing has been calling on politicians from across the political spectrum to pledge to deliver substantial numbers of homes for social rent as part of its Build Social campaign, which launched last year.
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During his speech, Mr Street promised that his manifesto for the next mayoral election would address the issue.
“In the manifesto that we are drawing up, we are actually going to be clear that there will be a numerical commitment to a particular number of social homes across the West Midlands in the next term,” he stated.
Earlier in his speech, Mr Street said the West Midlands was the “only region in the country” delivering on its national housebuilding targets.
Housing schemes receiving investment from the combined authority must make a minimum of 20% of the new homes affordable, but it has outperformed this figure, too. Of 6,285 homes unlocked by WMCA investments since 2018, 2,045 are affordable – nearly 33%.
But Mr Street said he saw social housing as an area where improvement is needed.
“Where I put my hand up and say we have not done a good enough job, is over social homes,” he stated.
He said that there was now “a new hope” for social housing moving forward, because of the new devolution deal the region struck with the government last year.
The deal with the government created a new partnership between Homes England and the combined authority, which would hand it control over the Affordable Homes Programme, delivering up to £400m affordable homes funding through to 2026.
“I basically refused to sign the deal until we got that £400m because we genuinely need a substantial sum to change the pace over this,” Mr Street added.
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