My conversation with Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands
Director of Policy and Research
Our latest episode of Meetings with Mayors featured a wide-ranging conversation with Richard Parker, the mayor of the West Midlands. Beyond being the mayor of one of the largest and most established Combined Authorities in England, Richard Parker is also uniquely positioned to reflect on the way the system works.
First, Parker led a Price Waterhouse Coopers team that advised on the creation of the West Midlands Combined Authority. This means that he can contrast the intended design of the system on paper with the reality of participating in that system in practice. His description of the role now — “sometimes you can feel like you’re the Secretary of State for everything” — is telling.
Second, Parker’s tightly contested win over Andy Street last year marks something new: a change of leadership for a large, established Combined Authority. This was a major theme of our discussion, as he reflected on the contrasts between his approach and that of his immediate predecessor.
Three other take-aways from our conversation:
- Inheriting the machine isn’t easy — because mayoralties reflect individual differences
Parker compared the process of taking on the Combined Authority from another Mayor as akin to “turning around … a barge”. He described how important he found it to enact culture change and restructure the team of the Combined Authority around new principles. Team members who were used to working as “enforcers” of the operation, or “opaque” operators, have been asked to change their ways. Beyond the contrasts of style (and perhaps Sir Andy Street would like a right to reply to all this!) there is an interesting point here about how important the character and approach of an individual mayor is, and how central they become to shaping and developing Combined Authorities around them.
- If you want to deliver, trust is everything
I was struck by how much Parker emphasised the importance of building trust between the Combined Authority and its constituent local authorities, and between the public and their elected representatives. I suggested that Combined Authorities are currently mostly soft-power institutions, not traditional ‘delivery’ organisations, and Parker replied by pointing out that the public will expect delivery if they are ever going to trust the system. In a Combined Authority, that requires a different aspect of trust: close working relationships with the local authority leaders who participate on the Board. He gave some examples, including letting his counterparts know in advance if he is planning to appear on ‘their patch’.
- Not much love for Homes England
I suspect that the current central Government is not alone in its scepticism about arms-length bodies. I asked Parker about whether he would like to see Homes England wound down, and its powers regionalised to Combined Authorities. I think it was notable that he did not reject this idea (he also didn’t endorse it). He said: “I don’t know where Government is on this … I want to ensure that in the future the affordable housing resources deployed in this region with myself and council leaders as part of the decision … I don’t believe that Homes England would make the same choices, or the right choices, about what to do with those resources, because they are not close enough to understand our priorities.”
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