Changing our economy without leaving anyone behind: the first five years
New investment standards based on climate impact: in negotiating the region’s next devolution deal, the region will work with Government to broker new investment standards for the West Midlands. In this way, all public spending can be judged by the positive social and environmental outcomes it creates, and not on GVA uplift alone.
Expansion of low emission places: learning from the current development work on Birmingham’s Clean Air Zones, and the car exclusion zone pilots around schools that have been run in Birmingham and Solihull, places across the region will collaborate to plan how this can be expanded in line with upgrades to the transport network.
Review of Movement for Growth: Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) has already started the process of reviewing the strategy, with climate emergency as one of its key themes. This is partly about ensuring credible, sustainable public transport, partly about reducing demand, but also, ensuring that the region is able to balance the delivery of goods to people and businesses with the need to create safe spaces for people to walk and cycle. The ‘last mile’ is particularly important to get right, notably the demand for home delivery continues to escalate.
Enforcement and strengthening of energy efficiency standards: secure resources to enforce Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) regulations for private rented sector (PRS) properties – currently need to achieve an EPC rating of E. In addition, seek Government support to strengthen the MEES threshold from E to C.
Introduction of LHA+: As per the development work of WMCA Homelessness Taskforce(11), develop a new deal – LHA+(12) - with PRS landlords who are willing to commit to good standards and fair access. This would involve landlords agreeing to meet the Decent Homes(13) standard, provide reasonable lengths of tenancy, and accept tenants referred by local authorities. This could equate to social rents at 50th percentile.
ECO devolution: continue to pursue devolution of Energy Company Obligation (ECO) 3(14) funding, including of the ability to join up fragmented funds for more effective local delivery.
Pay-as-you-save energy efficiency scheme: scope a regional energy efficiency scheme using prudential borrowing, or other financial products like green bonds. These could be backed by various sources, including the UK Municipal Bonds Agency(15), institutional investors, and innovative start-ups like Bankers Without Boundaries(16).
11. See https://governance.wmca.org.uk/documents/s3029/Report.pdf
12. Local Housing Allowance – essentially, the rates used to calculate how much housing benefit can be paid in rent to private sector landlords.
13. See https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7812/138355.pdf
14. See https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/energy-company-obligation-eco3-2018-to-2022
15. See: https://www.ukmba.org
16. See: https://www.bwbuk.org