Plan to give West Midlands people much needed social homes 'progressing well'

Plans to give West Midlands people much needed social homes 'progressing well'
-Credit:PA


The West Midlands Mayor said talks on unlocking funding that will help build new social homes in the region are "progressing well". Richard Parker wants Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to give the green light for around £150 million cash awarded to the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to be made available for creating around 2,000 new social houses.

He told members of the WMCA overview and scrutiny committee the money - awarded by the previous Government - was currently unable to be used by the deadline of the end of the financial year because of tight restrictions around its use. But he said the talks held so far with Angela Rayner have so far been positive and hopes to have an announcement in a matter of weeks.

Mr Parker told members of a WMCA overview and scrutiny committee there were around 20,000 people, including 13,000 people living in poor quality temporary accommodation. He said: "It would have been, in my view, a dereliction of my duty and responsibility if the funds due to expire at the end of this year were to run out without being used, given the fact we have 20,000 people living in temporary accommodation.

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"That includes 13,000 children having their lives and futures blighted because they can't get access towards secure and affordable housing. I made it clear I would need to work with the Government to get some additional flexibilities both on the extension on the timeframes in which we could use those funds but also I wanted to use them for very different purposes to my predecessor with a focus on social homes.

"After the General Election, I wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister asking for the freedoms and flexibilities around both the dates and for further flexibilities which would allow me to deliver up to 2,000 additional units of social housing. Those conversations have been progressing well. Business cases are being developed and approved. I spoke to the Deputy Prime Minister last week at a Mayoral away day with her.

"The conversations were very positive and I'm hoping within a matter of weeks rather months I'll be able to make a public statement about the progress we've made. The Government is very supportive and understands our needs. It's focused on addressing child poverty and getting families out of temporary accommodation which will also relieve our local authorities of enormous financial burden and I'm very pleased those conversations are very positive."