West Midlands mayor Richard Parker talks exclusively to the Express & Star during a business lunch at Richardson's in Oldbury.
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00:00Mark Andrews for the Express and Star. I am outside Richardson's headquarters in
00:06Oldbury where I have just attended a business lunch with Richard Parker, the
00:12elected mayor for the West Midlands. He has outlined his plans and his views on
00:19transport, education, training, skills and housing. This is what he had to say
00:24afterwards. How have you found your post so far? What have they been the big
00:29things you found out about it? Yeah so it's a great role. I said when I'd won
00:34that this was the most important thing I've done in my life and it is and I'm
00:38pleased with the progress we've made on my key priorities. On the skills agenda
00:44we're starting to overhaul our priorities and I've put a West Midlands
00:49youth plan in place which is helping our young people get access to the skills
00:52they need to get well-paid jobs. On housing my priorities around more
00:57affordable social housing. I'm in discussions now with the Secretary of
01:01State about having freedom on how to use around £150 million
01:05with the housing resources that are stranded in the accounts of the
01:09combined authority. On the transport system we've made first steps
01:14towards franchising and there's the first stage of that work called an audit
01:19process is currently taking place and we'll have the results of that very soon
01:23and I'm hoping the results of that will allow us to go to the next stage in the
01:26process and I've also we're starting to develop the content for our
01:33regional growth plan which we need to submit to the chance six checker later
01:37in the autumn so really pleased with the progress to date there's lots to do but
01:41but we're making a difference. You said during the questions you're just doing
01:47it that you inherited a mess when it came to transport is anything specific a
01:52specific example you can give of what you mean by that? Yeah I was really clear
01:55at the last board meeting that I chaired that I said from the outset that that
02:03today and that day was a day of reckoning and it shouldn't have taken
02:06mayoral election or the election of a new mayor for some of the issues I
02:09shared at that meeting to be in the public domain so I was I inherited a
02:14position where many of the major transport projects in this region were
02:18going to cost a lot more than was in any budgets and we're going to be further
02:22delayed and also I came across projects that commit where commitments would be
02:27made about them when either there was little money there to fund them or those
02:32projects hadn't even gone to the first stage of a business case and that's why
02:36I launched at that point in time an independent transport review. Arup
02:42are undertaking that review and they will report on their key findings later
02:47in the autumn and they'll be just looking at the way that regionally
02:51important transport projects sponsored by the Combined Authority are planned
02:55delivered and managed. Are you going to give me an example of one of these
03:01projects where you know it hasn't been funded properly or the money
03:04wasn't there for this? Well I can talk about I know we're in the black country
03:08today but one of the projects that needed you know a lot more funding was
03:13the the opening of the Camp Hill line running through South Birmingham which
03:17not only is going to cost an extra 40 or 50 million pounds above what was
03:21announced previously but is also going to be from that point in delayed
03:26another 15 months or so in terms of its delivery time so that was just
03:30one example of one project that I inherited that I had to make
03:36announcements on are positions that you know I think were probably known about
03:40before but hadn't been disclosed and that's why I asked for this independent
03:46review to understand that what decisions have been made before what was known
03:50about before and what we need to do differently in the future to give
03:53everyone more certainty and clarity over both delivery timescales and the cost of
03:59projects. You've obviously you've got this review ongoing obviously I don't
04:03expect you to tell me anything about that at this stage but have you seen it
04:06yourself or are you aware of the progress of what has been made on it
04:09yourself? No I haven't but it's very important that that review was
04:13undertaken independently of political oversight because it's not a
04:18political review it's a review about project management and delivery. Arup are
04:23the appointed advisors and they will be reporting on their findings later in the
04:28autumn and we don't currently but over the next two weeks we
04:33should have some clarity they are undertaking that work without any
04:37political supervision and I am not for those reasons involved involved in it
04:43but I'm looking forward to the findings. Do you fear you might be delivering some
04:49bad news sometime in the next few weeks on this? So I'm hoping I've had the
04:56bad news already because what I had to announce at the last board meeting was a
05:00series of project delays and overspend on projects and the need to defer others
05:06so the issue for me is from the report is understanding what has happened on
05:11the current projects in delivery so we learn from any mistakes made
05:16and as we turn the corner on a new transport program that we don't repeat
05:21mistakes that have been made historically. You were asked a
05:25question by somebody in the state education system about the VAT on school
05:30fees, would you just perhaps outline what your thoughts are on that personally?
05:34Actually I don't think my personal views matter what I was clear about is the
05:39government have inherited a fiscal black hole from previous government and
05:43the new government have to ensure that we properly provide for and fund our
05:48public services and particularly those that are most accessible to members of the
05:52public and a decision has been made to levy VAT on private schools and all I
05:57said was was that those are decisions for the Chancellor Exchequer and others
06:02and we have a dual responsibility in this country to ensure that we grow our
06:07economy and support investment in growth and create jobs but also that we can
06:11properly fund our public services. Do you have any of those concerns
06:15that were expressed though about the impact it will have on the state sector?
06:18Well I'm not sure we know what impact it will have on the state sector no one's
06:23provided me with any guidance or advice on that but I think the
06:28views of the sector have been you know quite widely known and the Chancellor
06:34and the Secretary of State have delivered and developed a plan but that
06:38plan that we've got I come back to it has to be a plan for growth it has to be
06:43a plan that supports investment in public services and it has to be a plan
06:46that addresses the fiscal black hole that the government have inherited.
06:51Richard Park here, thank you very much.