Ian Austin: Mayor Street is wasting cash
The West Midlands Mayor has been accused of squandering public cash on 'flunkeys and spin doctors' after it emerged that his office budget will quadruple over the next two years.
Labour MP Ian Austin said Andy Street should be spending the extra money on tackling homelessness and boosting apprenticeships.
But Mr Street has hit back, insisting that the additional money is not for staff. He says it will be used to fund his electoral commitments.
Official papers from the West Midlands Combined Authority show the budget for the Mayor's Office to be £0.4m last year, rising to £0.8m in 2018-19. By 2019-20 it will be £1.5m.
Dudley North MP Mr Austin said the increase 'flies in the face' of Mr Street’s election manifesto pledge to 'keep the costs of the Mayor’s office as low as possible and make sure that the Mayor’s office pays for itself'.
He called on the Mayor to spend the money on 'getting homeless people off the streets or funding more apprenticeships for young people'.
“This is typical of the Tories," he added.
"Andy Street promised he would keep the costs of his office down, but here he is quadrupling the size of his army of advisers.
"We’ve got homeless people dying on the streets and youth unemployment way above the national average so instead of hiring flunkeys and spin doctors, our Tory Mayor should be using every penny to tackle the scandal of rough sleeping and providing more apprenticeships for local youngsters.”
A spokesman for the West Midlands Mayor said: “Mr Austin appears to be confused about the difference between budgets and staff.
"There are actually no plans for any significant increase in the size of the Mayor’s team – it remains a small and high-energy team focused on delivery.
"The additional budget agreed by the leaders of the local authorities is not for large numbers of staff but to help drive some of the Mayor’s election commitments.
"This includes tackling homelessness through his taskforce and working on congestion-busting measures, two issues people feel very strongly about.
"People in, for example, Dudley are able to see that the Mayor’s office is already paying for itself, such as by successfully helping to secure the funding for the Midland Metro through the town.
"This has taken several frustrating decades to get off the ground but will soon be driving investment and creating jobs.”
