We have an excellent West Midlands Mayor in Andy Street. He cares about Stourbridge. He was here last week with me to meet with those opposed to development at Corbett Meadow.
He knows what is needed to make the region flourish and I am backing him when it comes to fighting for a devolution deal and more power to the West Midlands Combined Authority to help level up places like Lye.
Levelling up in principle is a very good idea but, as we found out earlier this month when it came to the bid for Lye, it’s a competitive bidding process with a finite pot of cash decided on by civil servants down in London.
In Stourbridge and in other parts of the region, Dudley council and I put in months of our time in developing a bid and we came away disappointed. This still leaves Lye needing public and private investment. Andy Street knows it, I know it, the council knows it and crucially so do the people who live there.
To fix this, we need the government to increase the ability of Andy and the authority he leads to shape the local economy and to drive forward our levelling up priorities. We need more decisions made locally and the funding to back this up with total discretion here in the West Midlands on how it is spent.
The fact is the WMCA has made a great success of its powers since the first devolution deal was implemented. This can be seen in everything from skills outcomes and inward investment to new transport capital projects. Devolution was part of the reason the West Midlands performed so well before Covid. We need more if it please.
So the devolution deal now under negotiation with Government needs to unlock new powers for the region - in critical areas like skills, transport and trade. Devolved funding streams can guarantee a more flexible flow of public funds – rather than the stop start of competitive bids overseen in London.
I want Lye to prosper now. Only that approach will help repurpose the scrub land behind the high street, stimulate affordable home building, create a strategic transport plan for the Stourbridge Dasher to finally leave the platform and, most importantly, create an environment to attract private investment.
Andy has my full support in getting this deal and there’s no time to waste. Let’s get on with it. We need to give confidence to Lye and other places across the Black Country in need of regeneration that this can happen.
I passionately believe this is the future of levelling up – the local economic firepower in the hands of local decision makers.
