Mayor: 'I want to spend £146m on council houses, here's how I will do it'
The elected mayor for the West Midlands has asked Housing Secretary Angela Rayner to 'unlock' millions of pounds of funding to build more than 2,000 council houses in the region.
Richard Parker said the West Midland Combined Authority was sitting on £146 million of unspent funding which the previous government had allocated for redeveloping brownfield land.
Mr Parker said the original intention had been to give the money to developers to encourage them to build on complicated sites, typically former factories and industrial locations.
But, he said, external factors had meant that this money has not been spent, and will go back to the Government unless the rules regarding its use are relaxed.
He said previous mayor Andy Street had built just 46 new council homes during his seven years in the post.
"That’s not good enough, especially when the number of families on the waiting list for a council house in this region has risen to around 64,000," he said.
"When I took office in May, it was clear that this large pot of unspent funding would be lost without action.
"This funding, if unlocked, will make a huge difference to thousands of families giving them somewhere safe, secure and warm to live."
During last year's Labour Party conference, Mrs Rayner pledged to unlock government grants to deliver new homes by making the Government's Affordable Homes Programme more flexible.
