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West Midlands mayor Richard Parker talks exclusively to the Express & Star during a business lunch in Oldbury.
Express & Star
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18/10/2024
West Midlands mayor Richard Parker talks exclusively to the Express & Star during a business lunch at Richardson's in Oldbury.
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00:00
Mark Andrews for the Express and Star. I am outside Richardson's headquarters in
00:06
Oldbury where I have just attended a business lunch with Richard Parker, the
00:12
elected mayor for the West Midlands. He has outlined his plans and his views on
00:19
transport, education, training, skills and housing. This is what he had to say
00:24
afterwards. How have you found your post so far? What have they been the big
00:29
things you found out about it? Yeah so it's a great role. I said when I'd won
00:34
that this was the most important thing I've done in my life and it is and I'm
00:38
pleased with the progress we've made on my key priorities. On the skills agenda
00:44
we're starting to overhaul our priorities and I've put a West Midlands
00:49
youth plan in place which is helping our young people get access to the skills
00:52
they need to get well-paid jobs. On housing my priorities around more
00:57
affordable social housing. I'm in discussions now with the Secretary of
01:01
State about having freedom on how to use around £150 million
01:05
with the housing resources that are stranded in the accounts of the
01:09
combined authority. On the transport system we've made first steps
01:14
towards franchising and there's the first stage of that work called an audit
01:19
process is currently taking place and we'll have the results of that very soon
01:23
and I'm hoping the results of that will allow us to go to the next stage in the
01:26
process and I've also we're starting to develop the content for our
01:33
regional growth plan which we need to submit to the chance six checker later
01:37
in the autumn so really pleased with the progress to date there's lots to do but
01:41
but we're making a difference. You said during the questions you're just doing
01:47
it that you inherited a mess when it came to transport is anything specific a
01:52
specific example you can give of what you mean by that? Yeah I was really clear
01:55
at the last board meeting that I chaired that I said from the outset that that
02:03
today and that day was a day of reckoning and it shouldn't have taken
02:06
mayoral election or the election of a new mayor for some of the issues I
02:09
shared at that meeting to be in the public domain so I was I inherited a
02:14
position where many of the major transport projects in this region were
02:18
going to cost a lot more than was in any budgets and we're going to be further
02:22
delayed and also I came across projects that commit where commitments would be
02:27
made about them when either there was little money there to fund them or those
02:32
projects hadn't even gone to the first stage of a business case and that's why
02:36
I launched at that point in time an independent transport review. Arup
02:42
are undertaking that review and they will report on their key findings later
02:47
in the autumn and they'll be just looking at the way that regionally
02:51
important transport projects sponsored by the Combined Authority are planned
02:55
delivered and managed. Are you going to give me an example of one of these
03:01
projects where you know it hasn't been funded properly or the money
03:04
wasn't there for this? Well I can talk about I know we're in the black country
03:08
today but one of the projects that needed you know a lot more funding was
03:13
the the opening of the Camp Hill line running through South Birmingham which
03:17
not only is going to cost an extra 40 or 50 million pounds above what was
03:21
announced previously but is also going to be from that point in delayed
03:26
another 15 months or so in terms of its delivery time so that was just
03:30
one example of one project that I inherited that I had to make
03:36
announcements on are positions that you know I think were probably known about
03:40
before but hadn't been disclosed and that's why I asked for this independent
03:46
review to understand that what decisions have been made before what was known
03:50
about before and what we need to do differently in the future to give
03:53
everyone more certainty and clarity over both delivery timescales and the cost of
03:59
projects. You've obviously you've got this review ongoing obviously I don't
04:03
expect you to tell me anything about that at this stage but have you seen it
04:06
yourself or are you aware of the progress of what has been made on it
04:09
yourself? No I haven't but it's very important that that review was
04:13
undertaken independently of political oversight because it's not a
04:18
political review it's a review about project management and delivery. Arup are
04:23
the appointed advisors and they will be reporting on their findings later in the
04:28
autumn and we don't currently but over the next two weeks we
04:33
should have some clarity they are undertaking that work without any
04:37
political supervision and I am not for those reasons involved involved in it
04:43
but I'm looking forward to the findings. Do you fear you might be delivering some
04:49
bad news sometime in the next few weeks on this? So I'm hoping I've had the
04:56
bad news already because what I had to announce at the last board meeting was a
05:00
series of project delays and overspend on projects and the need to defer others
05:06
so the issue for me is from the report is understanding what has happened on
05:11
the current projects in delivery so we learn from any mistakes made
05:16
and as we turn the corner on a new transport program that we don't repeat
05:21
mistakes that have been made historically. You were asked a
05:25
question by somebody in the state education system about the VAT on school
05:30
fees, would you just perhaps outline what your thoughts are on that personally?
05:34
Actually I don't think my personal views matter what I was clear about is the
05:39
government have inherited a fiscal black hole from previous government and
05:43
the new government have to ensure that we properly provide for and fund our
05:48
public services and particularly those that are most accessible to members of the
05:52
public and a decision has been made to levy VAT on private schools and all I
05:57
said was was that those are decisions for the Chancellor Exchequer and others
06:02
and we have a dual responsibility in this country to ensure that we grow our
06:07
economy and support investment in growth and create jobs but also that we can
06:11
properly fund our public services. Do you have any of those concerns
06:15
that were expressed though about the impact it will have on the state sector?
06:18
Well I'm not sure we know what impact it will have on the state sector no one's
06:23
provided me with any guidance or advice on that but I think the
06:28
views of the sector have been you know quite widely known and the Chancellor
06:34
and the Secretary of State have delivered and developed a plan but that
06:38
plan that we've got I come back to it has to be a plan for growth it has to be
06:43
a plan that supports investment in public services and it has to be a plan
06:46
that addresses the fiscal black hole that the government have inherited.
06:51
Richard Park here, thank you very much.
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