War of words as mayor Street pledges 425,000 new jobs and training places

Last week Richard Parker, Labour's challenger to become mayor in the election on May 2 – said he would create 150,000 new jobs and training opportunities if re-elected.

But Mr Street, the Tory regional mayor since 2007, said he would create 425,000 jobs and training opportunities if re-elected.

The figures have been dismissed as 'pie in the sky' by Labour.

Mr Street said 100,000 jobs and 135,000 training places had already been created since the pandemic.

"We have shown what we can achieve, now we must be ambitious and take the next step," he said.

Mr Street said his pledge was made up of 125,000 new jobs and 300,000 training opportunities over the next four years. This would be supported by booming sectors like technology and life sciences, while generating investment and new opportunities in the broader economy too.

A spokesman for Mr Parker said Mr Street's targets were totally unrealistic, and said the cost-of-living crisis was 'clobbering people across the Black Country'.

He said: "Andy Street would rather dream up fairytale economic targets than defend his government's current record.

"Wages have stagnated, the tax burden is at its highest since the Second World War, and everyone is worse off.

"We deserve a mayor who tells them the truth and delivers on their promises.

"Instead, they've got this ridiculous pledge coming from a man who is panicking that he's going to lose the election."

But Mr Street insisted: "These aren’t just figures pulled out of thin air, they are ambitious but achievable targets based on what we have already achieved, the sectors here that are showing real growth, projected investment and population growth too," he said.

Mr Street said the target would be for economic growth in the West Midlands to overtake that of London between over the next six years.

Last week he announced his plans for a US-style technology festival in the region, which he said would be the largest in Europe.

The battery 'gigafactory' near Coventry Airport would also play a crucial role, he added.

Mr Street said: "At the end of the pandemic, I set a very ambitious target of generating 100,000 new jobs in just two years, a target which we hit. In the same period, we created a staggering 135,000 training places.

"This success illustrated that setting an ambitious target, creating a robust plan and identifying and nurturing opportunities to grow the jobs market works here."

He said before the pandemic, the West Midlands was the fastest-growing region outside the capital.

"We have shown what we can achieve, now we must be ambitious and take the next step to grow our economy faster than London," he said.

“That means creating more high-quality jobs, driven by booming sectors like tech, creative and construction, while offering even more ways for people to have life-changing training, to get new skills and prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow."

Mr Parker's spokesman said: "To achieve this ludicrous target, he'd have to make 291 new jobs every single day."

Last week Mr Parker said he would create 150,000 jobs and training places by guaranteeing high-quality apprenticeships for every young person that wanted one, as well as support for those who wanted to retrain for new roles.

He said one of his first tasks would be to convene a 'taskforce' of employers, businesses, colleges and training providers to attract investment and create the skilled, experienced workforce businesses across the region need to thrive.

Mr Parker said his ambition for the region would be supported by Labour’s commitment to make Britain a 'clean energy superpower'. This included commitments to invest in electric vehicle battery plants in automotive heartlands like the West Midlands, fund green hydrogen manufacturing and upgrade cold, draughty homes.

But a spokesperson for Mr Street replied: “To put it simply, in the last two years, official statistics show that the West Midlands has created 235,000 jobs and training opportunities. The figures speak for themselves.

“For Richard Parker to set a target of just 150,000 over the next four years either shows a spectacular lack of ambition or a fundamental misunderstanding of the figures.”