New mayor Richard Parker vows West Midlands will be 'the best place to do business in the UK'

New West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker says he wants the region to become "the best place to do business in the UK".

Labour's Mr Parker, who beat Andy Street in the elections earlier this month, joined a panel of city leaders at a packed debate at UK property showcase UKREiiF in Leeds.

At the "ambition, adversity and achievement" event, hosted by global property giant Avison Young, Mr Parker was asked about what his first steps as mayor would be.

And he told the audience of investors and business leaders: "I want the West Midlands to be the best place to do business in the UK.”

Mr Parker listed three key policies he wanted to pursue. Firstly, he said he wanted to follow the lead of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham in "bringing the buses (in the West Midlands) back into public control".

He also plans to solve "profound housing challenge” in the region through the “biggest programme of social housing we’ve seen in the West Midlands for 40 years”.

And he added: “We need to overhaul the skills system so young people in particular can access the skills they need to get better jobs all round. The lack of skills is blighting people’s lives, especially if they come from the poorer parts of the West Midlands.”

Mr Parker said his mayoralty would work best if it brought together the public, private, third and educational sectors.

His missions to promote commercial development would include working to streamline the planning process, saying: "It takes too long for businesses that want to invest.”

He also said he wanted to “overhaul the role of the West Midlands Growth Company”, building on its existing work to support SMEs, adding there would be a new skills strategy to help local people and businesses to access the workers they needed.

Other speakers at the event, hosted by Jessica Bowles of Bruntwood, included Eamonn Boylan, chief executive of Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Mr Boylan said city regions with mayoral systems could learn from each other - for example from Greater Manchester's push to control its own bus network.

He said: “The Manchester system is not about taking sovereignty from individual authorities. It’s about taking power from London to the city regions and using them for the benefit of those city regions we represent.“

Mr Parker said that, even before his election, Labour mayors and mayoral candidates were meeting monthly as Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff Sue Gray had brought them together.

And he said he expected mayors would be able to attend cabinet meetings of any future Labour government on a rotational basis.

Robert Evans, of property consultancy Quod, said there were other successful examples of city regions beyond the North and Midlands.

He particularly praised Cambridge's “crystal-clear narrative around growth” and its “cross-sector clarity”.