‘Red tape’ on housing removed so hundreds of new social houses can be built in the West Midlands, says mayor

West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker said he will use the £40 million Social Housing Accelerator Fund to convert 1,000 properties that are ready for occupation, under construction or soon-to-be-built, over to social rent homes.

He has previously made calls to be released from restrictions placed by the previous Government which meant West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) housing funds could not be spent directly on affordable or social housing.

Latest figures show there are 7,450 households, including 14,976 children, currently living in temporary accommodation across the West Midlands and 65,335 households on the region’s social housing waiting lists.

Mr Parker said: “By cutting red tape, we have opened up £40 million to bring forward 1,000 social rent homes across the West Midlands – that’s 1,000 families whose lives will be changed.

“In total, we have approved or secured enough funding in just 15 months to bring forward over 1,750 new social homes - a significant step towards fixing our region's housing crisis.

“That figure means something, because it’s real peoples’ lives, we’re changing. But we still have too many people waiting too long for a safe, warm and secure place to call home and too many lives, including those of thousands of children, are being blighted as a result.”

Mr Parker set a target to build 2,000 social homes a year by 2028, as part of his ‘Homes for Everyone priority’.

And, since being elected in May last year, he has used WMCA funding to unlock derelict industrial sites, often referred to as brownfield, to provide more than 1,200 affordable homes including over 700 homes for social rent – more than all the social rent homes the WMCA has ever previously unlocked.

The Mayor met tenants living in new social rent homes at a Midland Heart housing association scheme on the site of the former London Taxi Company factory in Holyhead Road, Coventry.

A total of 87 new houses, 58 of which will be social rent and 29 for shared ownership will be built there.

One of the social rent tenants, David Hopper, 42, who has moved in there said he had been homeless for two and a half years following the death of his mother and a family fallout.

His situation was made worse by his own health problems and the loss of his job as a toolmaker during Covid.

But he now lives on the Holyhead Road development with his two dogs, Honey and Lucky.

David said: “I’ve been here for about five months, and it’s changed my life.

“I was homeless while trying to deal with my own health problems, losing my mum, and my job. I was trying to rebuild my life and kept failing because I couldn’t move on without my own home.

“I now have one less thing to worry about and this is going to give me the strength to go forward.

“I used to struggle to sleep but since I’ve been here, I sleep much better and that helps me focus. It feels like everything’s coming together.”