Dudley councillor Pete Lowe joins West Midlands mayoral race as 'anti-austerity' candidate

The 50-year-old says he is the "anti-austerity" candidate with a mission to champion the cause of local government to Whitehall.

If elected he plans to demand a backdated "fair funding settlement" for councils, fight for new powers for the Mayor's office, cap fares on public transport, end spending on consultants and address homelessness.

The Lye and Stourbridge North councillor has been a Labour member for 35 years and is an officer for the Managers in Partnership with the NHS trade union, having previously worked as a nurse.

He joins Birmingham MP Liam Byrne and former Stourbridge MP Lynda Waltho is a three-way battle to take on Conservative Andy Street in next May's mayoral election.

Labour members are expected to vote for the party's candidate in early autumn.

Mr Lowe told the Express & Star: "I am the anti-austerity candidate. I have campaigned in all of my previous roles that we need to address the deliberate underfunding of local government.

"The Mayor needs to be the champion who takes that argument very firmly to Westminster. We need someone with my skills and experience to fight the Labour Party cause, someone who is clearly rooted in local government.

"It is important we have a Labour Mayor after next year's election, and I firmly believe I will be able to unite the party and defeat Andy Street."

Father-of-two Mr Lowe, who has been a councillor for 16 years, said his team – including trade unionists, councillors and grassroots Labour supporters – has spent months developing a manifesto, full details of which will be issued in the coming weeks.

"We're not giving too much away at the moment, but we certainly want to ensure that the Mayor has the powers to make the changes needed," he said.

"The principal power is around transportation. We can make changes by looking at how we can cap fares on public transport through partnerships with local businesses.

"We also need to work quickly to address the issues of homelessness and get people into safe, secure accommodation and deal with their issues."

WATCH Pete Lowe's campaign launch

He said he wants to take press Westminster for a fair funding settlement for local authorities that will be backdated back to 2010.

"If local authorities had got that funding then we wouldn't be in the position that we are in now, with losing libraries and youth provision," he said.

"As Mayor I would be very clear in our demands to support the local authorities in the metropolitan areas."

Mr Lowe is a past parliamentary candidate for Stourbridge and a former vice chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority – the latter experience which he says allows him to offer "something different" to the other candidates.

"I haven't been part of the establishment. I have been very firmly rooted within local government," he said.

"People feel that we need a very strong local government front in the mayoral process, so we can ensure we bring the appropriate money and powers down from Westminster and that we protect and enhance the role of local government.

"I come with the unique position of being able to see the evolution of the combined authority and can now look at what needs to be done to bring the whole of the West Midlands together."

Turning his attention to Mr Street, he gives the current Mayor a "C minus, can do better" in the role up to now, saying: "Little has been done at pace. Most of his landmark achievements were in place prior to his election, such as the work around the Metro system and the Commonwealth Games.

"I want to change the way things are done. I will be making sure we don't spend almost £1 million on out-of-area consultants when we believe we have the people with the skills in this region to deliver the changes that we need in the West Midlands.

"We will be quickly reviewing those fees to consultants and transferring those funds to voluntary and community-based organisations in the region to do that work."