Ian Austin: Mayor Andy Street must stand and fight for the West Midlands

It’s 100 days since Andy Street was elected as mayor, promising immediate action to transform our region.

Fair play to him: he set a date for a community day next year and signed up 1,000 ‘mayor’s mentors’, including me, though I’m not sure what we’ll be asked to do, writes Dudley North MP Ian Austin.

He managed a couple of meetings with the public and persuaded his friend Theresa May to pose for a picture at Downing Street. But would anyone describe his record as the vigorous and dynamic leadership our region needs?

He’s failed on his promise to bring ‘Brexit cabinet ministers to the region to meet businesses and the public for a Brexit summit’.

Never knowingly undersold, the ex-boss of John Lewis pledged to ‘lead West Midlands businesses on a trade mission to a fast growing market, such as Silicon Valley’.

He did go with the head of Birmingham’s Chamber of Commerce to Canada for a day recently.

No offence to Toronto, but it’s not exactly a plane load of Midlands bosses meeting Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, is it?

Posing for pictures with the Prime Minister is supposed to show his access to the Government, but what has he got to show for it?

We didn’t hear a peep from the Mayor when Theresa May handed £1 billion to the Ulster Democrats. That’s an extra £244 per person per year – 18 times the £13 per head devolution brought to the West Midlands.

The truth is that we’ve been short-changed for years and Andy Street will never persuade a Conservative Government to give us a fair deal.

Government cutbacks mean crime is rocketing and the number of police on the streets is lower than at any point for the last 30 years, so why hasn’t he joined Police Commissioner David Jamieson and Chief Constable Dave Thompson to demand a fair share of funds to keep our streets safe? Given a choice between standing up for victims of crime or the Government, he stayed silent for fear of challenging his party and Prime Minister.

When families face falling wages and pay freezes, why hasn’t the mayor implemented a proper Living Wage for his staff, demanded public sector employers do the same and encouraged the private sector to do it too?

He promised to eradicate youth unemployment, but hasn’t made sure every single Combined Authority contract guarantees apprenticeships for local people.

And look at our NHS. The combined authority has a remit for improving mental health, yet under the Tories waiting lists are getting longer and vital services are being closed, again without a word from the man who is supposed to speak up for us.

Given that, who thinks a Conservative mayor will challenge the Government or tackle the major problems our region faces?

We’ve got world-beating businesses like Jaguar Land Rover, UTC Aerospace or Hadley Industries and it’s great some parts of the region are doing really well, but we also face real challenges.

Unemployment is higher than almost anywhere else. Long-term youth unemployment in the Black Country is twice the national average. We’ve struggled to attract new industries and new jobs to replace those lost in traditional industries.

Rough sleeping was almost a thing of the past by 2010, but we’re again seeing people on the streets.

We all know young people fighting to get on the housing ladder or families desperate for a secure home they can afford to rent, but with house-building at its lowest level since the 1920s and rent increases far outstripping pay rises, how can we trust a Conservative mayor to tackle the housing crisis?

We’ve got some great universities too, but Dudley and Sandwell are the biggest places in Britain with no university campus. I’ve led the campaign for a new hi-tech university and technical apprenticeship campus in Dudley, and it ought to be amongst the mayor’s top priorities.

We’re on the verge of a new industrial revolution and change is predicted to be 10 times quicker and 300 times the scale of the last one as the pace of change gets faster and faster.

We need a mayor who loves the West Midlands, believes we’re as good as anyone and will fight to make sure everyone here gets the same chance as people anywhere else.

Most of all, we need a mayor who will stand up to anyone when it comes to fighting for the West Midlands.