Housebuilding drive key to recovery, minister says on Black Country visit
A major housebuilding drive is key to helping the West Midlands bounce back after the pandemic, a minister has said during a visit to the region.
Christopher Pincher MP said the region was "leading the way" when it came to building new homes, as he hailed the construction industry as a major factor in the post-Covid economic fightback.
The housing minister, who was born in Bloxwich, was in the region to visit The National Brownfield Institute (NBI) at the University of Wolverhampton's Springfield campus.
He said the NBI would provide the "graduates of the future" with the skills needed to prioritise bringing brownfield sites back into use so the green belt could be preserved.
Mr Pincher said: "Across the country, the supply chain for housebuilding employs 1.1 million people, and there will be lots of people across the West Midlands connected to that industry in some way.
"It is a key component of future economic success. The housebuilding industry in the last 12 months has shown remarkable resilience in the face of this terrible pandemic.
"We've given it a lot of support and we want to see it at the forefront of building back, not just the homes that we need, but the strong economy that we need in the West Midlands."
Mr Pincher, who is MP for the Staffordshire town of Tamworth, said the West Midlands was leading the way in housebuilding, and described plans to build 215,000 new homes in the region by 2031 as "ambitious but realistic".
"Our aim is to build 300,000 new homes a year across the country by 2025," he said. "And we want to make sure we are putting brownfield first, which is why we are changing planning laws to make that easier.
"There's a big demand for new homes and for home ownership, but we also know that there are people who want to get onto the social and rented property ladder, and we have got to make sure that their homes are being built as well."
Affordable
He said the Government was also committed to ensuring that enough affordable homes were available, he added, pointing to a new programme investing more than £12bn into building new affordable homes.
Mr Pincher said job creation across all sectors would be key to the region's recovery from Covid, with a "big boost" on the way in the shape of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government opening a new headquarters in Wolverhampton.
"It's a physical demonstration of our commitment to move government out of London and into smaller, important go-ahead cities like Wolverhampton – and to make sure we're offering a real pyramid of skills in those departments outside London," he said.
"We will be recruiting about 250 people in total in Wolverhampton and we've already advertised 137 jobs for our new site there. Personally I am keen to spend time there to pick up the issues first hand that people are concerned about."
Asked if he was concerned about the rise in cases of the Indian strain of Covid threatening the Government's roadmap out of lockdown, Mr Pincher said: "We have got to follow the science and take the advice of the experts.
"The variant is a concern, but it would appear from the research that the vaccines that we have are effective in coping with the strain.
"We've just got to be absolutely vigilant to make sure that we get on top of it, keep on top of it, and don't let it spread. We want the economy to reopen as quickly as possible so we can all start to enjoy our lives again."
