Pearce Branigan looks at the incumbent West Midlands Mayor Andy Street and what issues he is campaigning on to hold on to the mayoralty on 7th May

Having defied the odds in May 2017 to secure the inaugural mayoralty for the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), Andy Street can arguably be credited as the first blue fracture in the red wall of Labour’s traditional political heartlands across the West Midlands.

Having secured the mayoralty by a majority of 3766, Andy Street faces a significant task in fending off the determined challenge from Labour to reclaim its former political hegemony in the West Midlands in the form of the Labour moderate Liam Byrne. However, Street can take solace from December’s General Election result, which saw Conservative support bolstered and further entrenched across swathes of the West Midlands, where the party won previous Labour strongholds in West Bromwich, saw their vote increased their hold in Walsall North, and made unprecedented voter gains in Walsall South. Furthermore, having ‘got Brexit done’ by 31 January, these first-time Conservative voters, may feel confident in again ‘lending’ their votes to the party, as the best route to protect and advance the interests of the West Midlands.

So who is Andy Street and what does he stand for?

Before his election to the mayoralty of the WMCA, Andy Street served as Managing Director of the John Lewis Partnership from 2007 to 2016 and as Chair of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership from 2011 to 2016. He has also been lead non-executive director for the Department for Communities and Local Government as well as a member of Prime Minister David Cameron's Business Advisory Group.

He has positioned himself as a vocal advocate for the region’s interests, being unafraid to take an independent line, frequently at odds with the Conservative Government’s rhetoric, to deliver and defend its economic, commercial and social interests.

From the outset of his re-election campaign, Street promised to build an economic powerhouse in the region by making it the fastest growing in the UK by 2020. He has latched on to the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda for rebalancing regional investment in the West Midlands, championing completion of HS2 as a critical component in achieving this, as well as improving the regions connectivity, by upgrading tramways, branch lines and bus services. Commenting on the long-awaited investment in the regions transport, Street argued that “it is indisputable that in the past we have spent far too much on transport projects in the south compared to the West Midlands. The ratio is seven to one. That isn’t right.”

Street has advocated for a more liberal financial approach to regional investment and infrastructure, being one of the first major Conservative politicians to call for an end to austerity, as early as 2018. In an article published on ConHome in September 2019, he vindicated his call for austerity’s end, stating: “I am heartened to see the cuts not just stopped but in some critical areas significantly reversed. While we can now invest in public services, we must also ensure that we stimulate investment, to continue to drive the growth that enables prudent spending.”

Central to the region’s economic lifeline is the automotive industry, a fact which Street has been more than willing to stress to successive governments during the tenure of his mayoralty. Drawing from his established experience in business and knowledge of complexity of just-in-time supply chains, Street has lobbied the Government to pursue a trade deal with the EU that maintains a seamless transition of goods and services, as necessary to sustain the UK’s automotive sector. Street has commented: “we cannot have a tariff or a delay…we will be pressing very hard because it bloody matters here.”

Street has fervently lobbied the Treasury to support the sector in the development of electric and autonomous vehicles, arguing that “Government spending must back it”, alongside investing in a state-of-the-art ‘gigafactory’ to manufacture the next generation batteries that will power those vehicles, to be based in the West Midlands, alongside the established automotive industry presence.

On housing and development, Street has cut a similarly independent line, previously accusing the government’s benefits freeze as having “undoubtedly contributed to an increase in homelessness in the West Midlands."

Though he has no formal planning powers, Street has favoured the reuse of brownfield and former industrial sites to accommodate the regions’ housebuilding targets. He was critical of the findings from the Urban Capacity Review, part of the Black Country Plan, calling for the release of green belt land to accommodate future development, perceiving this as the “easy option” to pursue. In response to the report, he tweeted: “I simply don't accept this report and I will do everything I can to oppose its conclusions. We can and will find more brownfield sites to regenerate for homes and we can and will find more sites in town centres for housing.” In contrast, using funding from the Government’s £350 million Housing Deal, the WMCA has been purchasing brownfield sites across the region to be brought back into public ownership and reused as housing estates.

Andy Street has demonstrated critical understanding of the prominent issues facing the West Midlands, being unashamed in speaking his mind to pursue, promote and defend the region’s interests, with an astuteness towards identifying the future opportunities and difficulties on the economic, social and political horizon. His candidacy will need to balance his independence with the Conservative momentum gained by votes ‘lent’ to the party in December to succeed.