Mayor commits to housebuilding revolution

The West Midlands Mayor has said he is committed to a 'revolution' in housebuilding.

Labour's Richard Parker spoke at a new development on the former Cookley Works steel factory in Brierley Hill, where all properties are either for sale under shared ownership or available at affordable rent.

Mr Parker said the completion of the 71-home project was "the tip of the iceberg" in relation to the challenge of tackling a shortage of homes in the region.

It comes as the government reveals proposals to increase home building across England.

In a document published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the 'indicative local housing need' for the West Midlands region totalled almost 32,000 new homes, compared to a previous total of approximately 25,000.

Mr Parker said the project in Dudley is to be celebrated, but is just the start.

"It's a fantastic development, not only because these homes have been built on brownfield land, but because they're all affordable."

He added: "I've written to the secretary of state asking for permission to use £100m of West Midlands Combined Authority funds, which are stranded because the rules around their use are drawn too narrowly".

"We have 20,000 families living in poor-quality, high-cost, temporary accommodation and more than 60,000 on housing waiting lists. So we've got to make building affordable housing a real priority."

Tag Majid and his wife purchased a house on the development using a shared equity scheme. They'd previously been denied a mortgage due to their ages and being self-employed.

The couple were living in a caravan before moving into their new home, having left a rental property which was affected by damp despite costing £1,000 a month in rent.

"This was our last-ditch attempt to get back on the property ladder. Even though we were paying more in rent than our proposed mortgage payments, the banks kept saying no."

"This has been a relief which you can't put into words. The system seems to be broken, someone needs to take a serious look at it."

Shahjahan Iqbal and his family had been living with relatives and needed a home of their own to enable their youngest son, who has disabilities, to be discharged from hospital.

"It was really hard. We were four people living in one room. We were going through a really hard time, so the new house is really good for us. "

This week, the Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, set out the government's plan for housing.

She admitted her plans “won’t be without controversy” but changes were required to make housing more affordable.

But the Conservatives said they would force suburban areas to take more housing from urban Labour-dominated areas.

The proposals include an overhaul of the planning system, including setting the number of homes each authority must build.

Some authorities in the West Midlands have seen their targets multiply.

Dudley's target has almost tripled - 1,594, compared to a previous indicative total of 657.

In contrast, Birmingham's is set to drop from 7,174 to 4,974.

The Conservative leader of Dudley Borough Council, Councillor Patrick Harley said: "I'm horrified at that figure. We've fought to save Dudley's green belt.

Referring to Labour's plan for selective development in protected areas, he said: "This myth about 'grey belt', there is no grey belt. We have a brownfield-only policy.

"I will be pursuing that policy and defending our green belt to the very, very end. "

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