Elected mayor must solve region’s ‘disastrous’ record on job creation

A NEW West Midlands mayor faces the challenge of solving the region’s “disastrous” failure to get people into jobs, a major new study has warned.

The region has the lowest employment rate of any region in England.

But the first ever directly-elected West Midlands mayor, to be elected on May 4 2017, could play a vital role in turning the fortunes of the region around.

The findings were published by think-tank, the Resolution Foundation, which looked at the biggest problems facing mayors across the country. In the West Midlands, the key issue for the mayor will be to “improve the disastrous employment levels across the area”, the think-tank said in a new report.

It said the region had the lowest employment rate of any city region by far at 64.4 per cent, around 10 per cent below the national average. All authorities in the region are below the national average.

Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation, said: “First impressions matter. That’s why the first generation of metro mayors will be measured by the change they deliver for their cities, not the powers they receive – desirable though devolution is.

“The focus both in the election campaigns to come and for new city leaders once elected must be on identifying the key living standards challenges in different cities and showing that the renewal of municipal economic leadership delivers concrete progress in tackling them.”

Responding to the findings, Siôn Simon, Labour’s candidate for West Midlands mayor, said: “For too long, decisions about jobs and business needs of the West Midlands have been made by politicians in London. From next year, that changes.

“Only by taking back control of our own affairs can we really tackle the low employment levels that blight opportunity for our region.”