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<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n A commitment\u00a0to end\u00a0years of insecurity for families stuck on\u00a0housing waiting lists,\u00a0was\u00a0today backed\u00a0by\u00a0the Prime\u00a0Minister\u00a0with \u00a3409m.\n <\/p>\n
The\u00a0Mayor of the West Midlands said\u00a0the\u00a0money,\u00a0which\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0result\u00a0of a\u00a0partnership with\u00a0the Government and Homes England, would be used alongside his\u00a0own\u00a0housing funds to build\u00a0thousands\u00a0more homes that were genuinely\u00a0affordable\u00a0for local people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since taking office\u00a0in May 2024, the Mayor\u00a0has\u00a0overseen\u00a0the\u00a0biggest social\u00a0housing\u00a0programme the West Midlands\u00a0has\u00a0experienced\u00a0in decades, setting a\u00a0target for the region to be building\u00a02,000 social rent homes a year by 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Latest figures show he contracted\u00a0a record 7,237\u00a0new homes\u00a0in the last\u00a0year.\u00a0That is\u00a0more than ten times the annual 623 average achieved before\u00a0he\u00a0took office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of\u00a0the\u00a0new homes,\u00a02,452\u00a0were\u00a0affordable,\u00a0including\u00a01,086\u00a0for\u00a0social rent, the most affordable type of housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reacting to the Prime Minister\u2019s announcement, the Mayor said: \u201cFor decades there\u2019s been a chronic underinvestment in council homes and genuinely affordable housing – and it\u2019s left us with the housing crisis we face today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe people\u00a0deserve better,\u00a0which is why\u00a0my focus has been\u00a0on\u00a0fixing\u00a0the mistakes of the past and rebuilding our housing stock.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve\u00a0already started turning around years of underinvestment in social\u00a0housing\u00a0but\u00a0the Prime Minister\u2019s announcement today\u00a0will see\u00a0us work together as a\u00a0region\u00a0and take\u00a0this\u00a0social housing\u00a0mission to the next\u00a0level.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNearly 15,000 children in our region are living in temporary accommodation. I want that number coming down and I want it coming down quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u00a0listen\u00a0to the experiences of\u00a0people\u00a0in temporary accommodation or stuck on housing waiting lists\u00a0you realise\u00a0just\u00a0how\u00a0much\u00a0their lives are blighted by\u00a0not having\u00a0a secure and decent home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u00a0will\u00a0change\u00a0that by\u00a0giving\u00a0people the\u00a0housing\u00a0stability and security they need to get on in life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The West Midlands currently has 7,450 households, including 14,976 children,\u00a0living in temporary accommodation, costing local councils tens of millions of pounds a year in\u00a0additional\u00a0housing costs.<\/p>\n
A further 65,335 households are on social housing waiting lists,\u00a0with\u00a0some\u00a0forced to pay sky-high rents for often poor-quality private\u00a0accommodation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Mayor\u00a0has\u00a0heard\u00a0first-hand\u00a0from people\u00a0whose lives have been\u00a0transformed by\u00a0having a safe and secure\u00a0home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Hopper,\u00a042, told the\u00a0Mayor\u00a0how he had been homeless for two and a half years following the death of his mother and a family fallout.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His situation was made worse by his own health problems and the loss of his job as a toolmaker during\u00a0the pandemic.\u00a0He lives\u00a0in a\u00a0Midland\u00a0Heart social\u00a0rent\u00a0apartment\u00a0off\u00a0Holyhead Road in Coventry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David said: \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0changed my life.\u00a0I 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\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0move on without my own home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI now have one less thing to worry about and this is going to give me the strength to go forward. It feels like\u00a0everything\u2019s\u00a0coming together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mother-of-three Sunita Kaur Singh\u00a0moved into\u00a0her\u00a0Midland Heart social\u00a0rent house\u00a0after spending much of the last 20 years in temporary accommodation trying\u00a0to\u00a0escape an abusive ex-partner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunita said: \u201cMoving from place to place, going from temporary accommodation to women\u2019s refuges and back into temporary accommodation,\u00a0is\u00a0absolutely\u00a0heartbreaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first stepped into this place,\u00a0I was overwhelmed and broke down in tears, I was so happy I had finally got somewhere. Getting this house feels like the answer to all my prayers. I am so happy. I never want to move from here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The \u00a3400m announced today is the first funding to be released from the region’s \u00a31.7bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme which runs until March 2035 and will see at least 10,000 affordable new homes built across the region over the decade.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Mayor, working with Homes England,\u00a0will\u00a0also,\u00a0for the\u00a0first time,\u00a0be\u00a0able to shape the way the region delivers its\u00a0programme\u00a0by setting out\u00a0ambitious\u00a0plans for the types of homes that get built and which sites should be prioritised for construction.<\/p>\n
He will continue to work with all social and affordable housing providers who can help address the region\u2019s needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The funding will contribute towards the region’s\u00a0\u00a33.8bn Futures Fund\u00a0which brings together money and backing from major public organisations, including the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), the West Midlands Pension Fund, Homes England, National Wealth Fund and other national investment bodies to speed up regeneration, build more affordable homes and create jobs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A commitment\u00a0to end\u00a0years of insecurity for families stuck on\u00a0housing waiting lists,\u00a0was\u00a0today backed\u00a0by\u00a0the Prime\u00a0Minister\u00a0with \u00a3409m. The\u00a0Mayor of the West…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1167715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[22440,22441,855,9163,22439,748,9444,1354,393,9453,4884,14987,269,12,3669,9440,93,16823,16,15],"class_list":["post-1167714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-102-5","tag-102-5-fm","tag-birmingham","tag-black-country","tag-brierley-hill","tag-britain","tag-dab","tag-dudley","tag-england","tag-fm","tag-great-britain","tag-halesowen","tag-music","tag-news","tag-online","tag-radio","tag-sport","tag-stourbridge","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1167714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1167715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1167714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1167714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1167714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}