The Chamberlain News

Labour candidate kicks off campaign with affordable housing pledge

Labour’s candidate for West Midlands Mayor, Siôn Simon MEP, has begun campaigning in earnest with a pledge to build 3,000 new affordable homes per year if elected as the region’s first metro mayor.

Simon was selected as the Labour candidate earlier this week. No other candidates are yet formally declared for the new role, but GBSLEP chair Andy Street is widely expected to stand as the Conservative candidate. The election will take place next May.

On the visit to the old Dudley Guest Hospital site, now known as ‘Butler’s Crescent,’ the mayoral hopeful was joined by local MP, deputy leader of the party and close friend Tom Watson for a meeting with directors from Wates Living Space who are redeveloping the old hospital site.

Siôn Simon said:

Dudley Council are setting a great example at Butler’s Crescent and if I am elected as West Midlands Mayor in May I will double the affordable new social housing being built, that’s 3,000 new affordable homes to rent built every year in the West Midlands.

What I’m saying on housing is simple. More council houses. More and better quality homes across the board. And affordable means affordable – that is what I will deliver as West Midlands Mayor – for Dudley, but also across the Black Country, Coventry, Birmingham and Solihull.

Tom Watson MP will no doubt have enjoyed spending time supporting a Labour candidate on the campaign trail who will be favourite to win an election. He said:

Siôn’s commitment to truly affordable housing is front and centre of his offer to the people of the West Midlands.

He has been clear that as a Labour Mayor in the West Midlands he would double the number of genuinely affordable homes across the region.

Under this Tory Government there is a housing crisis. And affordable homes are becoming a thing of the past, especially for young people in the West Midlands who want to stand on their own two feet.

There is a desperate need for affordable homes and that means we need to build new council houses.

Siôn, as Labour Mayor, would deliver new affordable homes right across the West Midlands.

To those who may still be unsure about what a Mayor will do for them in the West Midlands I say this: as Labour Mayor Siôn will reclaim power from Westminster and bring funding back to the region. He will deliver positive change for the people of the West Midlands.