West Midlands Mayor elections: Conservative Andy Street unveils his manifesto

Incumbent mayor Andy Street has said the “job isn’t done” as the build-up to the West Midlands mayoral election continues to heat up.

Mr Street, the former John Lewis chief executive who has held the post since 2017, launched his manifesto last week at the new Walsall Energy from Waste Facility and unveiled its key pledges. The Conservative candidate will face opposition from those running for the Labour Party, Green Party, the Liberal Democrats, Reform UK and an independent when the election takes place on May 2.

The mayor represents around 2.8 million residents and is expected to seek investment and act as a champion for the region. Writing in his manifesto, Mr Street said: “Since 2017 it has been the greatest honour of my life serving as your Mayor. Using my non-partisan, business-like approach, we have made huge strides.”

Major investment has helped open new metro routes and train stations, build a “record number of homes” and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, he adds. “We’ve also faced the climate emergency head on, invested in our culture, and helped halve the number of rough sleepers on our streets,” he continued.

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“This has been achieved through cross-party working, sound financial management with no Mayoral tax and sticking to my number one promise – place before party. But the job isn’t done.” He continued he had plans to further upgrade the region’s transport network, spend £400 million on building social homes and turn the West Midlands into a ‘tech capital of the UK’ if re-elected. Here are some of the key priorities set out in the manifesto.

1) Deliver the 2040 transport plan

Mr Street says this would involve opening nine new metro stations, three new railway stations, building a new interchange in Dudley, and introducing new state-of-the-art trains on the Cross-City Line this year.

Then next year, he says he would implement a ‘tap and go’ fare-capping system to make travel on bus, rail and tram cheaper and “easier than ever before”. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service this week: “The most important thing that should give people confidence in what I say is we have been delivering transport investment for the last few years.”

2) Build homes while protecting the Green Belt

If re-elected, the incumbent mayor says he also wants to build over 16,000 new homes every year so more local people can buy or rent their own home. He also wants to double down on the ‘Brownfield First’ approach, cleaning up derelict industrial sites to deliver the homes while protecting green spaces.

The manifesto continues that Mr Street wants to use a “£400 million war chest to start a social housing revolution to help those on low incomes, support the regeneration of council estates, ensure developers provide truly affordable housing, and extend our successful ‘Housing First’ scheme to prevent homelessness.”

3) Create jobs

One key priority for Andy Street if re-elected is to create 425,000 new jobs and training opportunities over the next four years. He also wants to make the West Midlands an international tech leader, with plans for a ‘SXSW-style’ tech, music and creative festival.

Other priorities include investing hundreds of millions a year into the “Plan for Growth”; continuing to attract foreign investment; and tackling youth unemployment with “major investment” in apprenticeships, free training and related travel for those on low incomes.

4) Restore pride in towns and city centres

Andy Street’s manifesto says the incumbent mayor wants to “rapidly deploy the £1 billion war chest the region has assembled” to deliver schemes that improve the region’s town and city centres – especially in the Black Country.

Other priorities for Mr Street if re-elected include seizing opportunities of the Mell Square and Gracechurch redevelopments and reviewing the region’s heritage pubs and buildings to “ensure they’re properly protected and where necessary brought back to use.”

He also wants to provide funding to turn villages, towns and city centres into “event hotspots” to boost and bring more high profile events to the region, including the European Athletics Championships.

5) Help reduce energy bills and tackle climate change

Andy Street’s manifesto says one priority if he secures another term as mayor would be to deliver the “most ambitious retrofitting programme in the country” to help make homes more energy efficient, and cut energy bills.

Mr Street also wants to reduce the cost of energy bills to small businesses through its energy support scheme. He also intends to continue to make public transport cleaner and greener by delivering more electric buses and trains, building more cycle routes and expanding the electric vehicle charging network to help meet the 2041 Net Zero target.

6) Getting the best financial deal for the region

Andy Street says he wants to keep the cost of the Mayoralty low, saying he has no intention of implementing a mayoral tax in the future if re-elected.

The manifesto adds that he wants to make sure investment is spread fairly across the region, not just in Birmingham city centre, and bring more government funding and private sector investment to create new jobs.

New ideas in the manifesto include building a flagship cycling and walking route from Birmingham to Coventry via Solihull; appointing a dedicated Black Country Regeneration Commissioner and funding 40 dedicated full-time careers advisors in some of the region’s most challenging schools.

You can find a list of all of the mayoral candidates and a glimpse of what they stand for here: West Midlands Mayoral Elections 2024 candidates