Partnerships

Renew

05 / 11 / 2024

This year's Autumn Budget from Labour has shone a spotlight on the West Midlands, with the Chancellor revealing it will be one of two regions to receive integrated settlements from next year, alongside Greater Manchester. This will give the mayor more meaningful control of the funding for the region and autonomy over funding decisions.

Leading partnerships housing and regeneration developer, Lovell has been working with the West Midlands Combined Authority to combat the region’s housing crisis, it welcomes this next step in regional devolution.

Stuart Penn, regional managing director at Lovell, said: “We welcome the focus on the West Midlands from Rachel Reeves and the additional investment into social housing. As of March 2024, there were 64,382 households on the social housing waiting list in the Combined Authority area, highlighting the impact a lack of focus and funding has had on the region’s housing register.

“We’ve been involved in several housing schemes across Birmingham - both new-build developments and major refurbishment projects. The success of these schemes was only made possible by strong public and private sector partnerships, where all parties, from the developer to the registered provider, have an invested interest in improving the lives of those that live in and around the city.

“The scale of the social housing challenge is so vast and can only be tackled with this collaborative approach, as we have seen across regional developments already. Furthermore, we need enhanced regional autonomy, which we are pleased to see West Midlands should be receiving as part of the integrated settlements announced at the Autumn Budget. Plans to simplify the structures in local areas by widening devolution and increasing the powers of existing mayors will have a positive impact on the West Midlands.

For Lovell, it is imperative that we continue to strengthen our existing relationship with the WMCA and registered social housing providers to unlock brownfield site across the West Midlands and deliver high-quality homes where people want to live.”