The Mayor Richard Parker continues to deliver on his ambitious vision to transform the region, focusing on four key priorities that will make a real difference in people’s lives:
Jobs for Everyone – Investing in skills, training, and apprenticeships, reducing youth unemployment, and ensuring everyone has a job that pays well.
Homes for Everyone – Building social and affordable homes, creating vibrant communities, so that everyone has a place to call home.
Growth for Everyone – Helping businesses thrive, fostering innovation and creativity, ensuring the benefits reach everyone while protecting the environment.
Journeys for Everyone – Connecting communities with safer, easier, and more affordable travel.
The Taskforces
To help deliver on the Mayor’s priorities, the four established Taskforces bring together leading experts from across sectors to form a regional council of insight, challenge, and delivery.
Each Taskforce plays a central role in shaping policy, strengthening engagement, and accelerating action to improve outcomes for people and communities across the West Midlands.
The role of a Taskforce member includes:
- Providing expert advice to the Mayor and WMCA, helping shape strategies and policy approaches within your specialist area.
- Bringing fresh perspectives and constructive challenge to support evidence‑based policy development and drive progress on the Mayor’s priorities.
- Leading or contributing to short-term Task & Finish workstreams, turning insight into actionable recommendations and supporting delivery on key issues.
- Collaborating with peers from across sectors, strengthening engagement, sharing best practice, and helping promote the ambition and purpose of the Taskforce.
- Supporting innovation and problem‑solving, identifying barriers, opportunities, and practical solutions that will benefit people and businesses across the region.
Taskforce Activity
Jobs for Everyone
Over the past year, the Jobs Taskforce has laid strong foundations through its work on the regional Construction Plan, which the Mayor launched in March 2026. The group supported by identifying the skills, workforce pipelines, and sector partnerships needed to accelerate delivery. Building on this progress, the Taskforce will expand its focus in the year ahead, deepening industry collaboration, strengthening employer engagement, and exploring new ways to boost progression pathways for residents across the region.
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands with his Jobs Taskforce
Homes for Everyone
The Homes Taskforce has developed an analytical paper assessing a range of policy interventions to accelerate housebuilding in the West Midlands, identifying practical levers to boost delivery and unlock stalled sites. Building on this work, the Taskforce will explore additional interventions over the forthcoming year—supporting a more strategic approach to land, funding, and enabling infrastructure to increase the supply of new homes.
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, with his Homes Taskforce
Growth for Everyone
The Growth Taskforce has driven forward critical work on improving access to finance, helping to map gaps in provision and shape proposals that better connect West Midlands businesses with the capital they need to scale. This has underpinned the development and early implementation of the Mayor’s Growth Plan, ensuring finance is a core enabler of the region’s economic ambitions. In the coming year, the Taskforce will build on this evidence base while exploring new areas to strengthen business support and drive productivity and regeneration across the region.
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, with his Growth Taskforce
Journeys for Everyone
The Journeys Taskforce has undertaken a detailed exploration of patronage trends across the West Midlands transport system, helping to build a clearer picture of user behaviour, demand patterns, and areas for improvement. Over the next year, it will use this insight as a platform for new lines of enquiry, testing innovative approaches to grow ridership, improve integration, and support a more reliable and user-focused transport network.
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands with the Journeys Taskforce
If you are interested in joining a Taskforce, or to find out more about the activity of the groups, including what is detailed above, then please contact: taskforces@wmca.org.uk
Mayor's Taskforces Members
(no Chair at the moment)
- Sat Nijjer – Fortel
- Katie Webb – Jericho Foundation
- Rob Colbourne – Performance Through People
- Carmen Watson – Pertemps
- Sareena Bains – Movement to Work
- Matthew Gordon – Spectra Connect
- Mike Hopkins – South and City College
- Fiona Aldridge – Skills Federation
- Sureya Gulzar – Black Country Housing Group
- Dan Parkes – Mercian Trust
- Shaid Parveen – Aston Law School
- Cllr Adam Hicken – Walsall MBC
- Wayne Langford – West Midlands Combined Universities
- Cathi Shovlin – NHS
- Karen Jameson – NHS
- Muhammad Sibi - RET Member
- Helen Collins (Chair) – Principal, MD Midlands, Head of UK Living & Affordable Housing, Avison Young
- Afzal Hussain – Chief Officer, Witton Lodge Community Association
- Cllr Andy Mackiewicz – Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Climate Change & Planning, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
- Gavin Mullaley – Director & Co-Founder, Cornerstone Partnership
- Katie Kershaw – Director, Node
- Mike Best – Director, Best Laid Planning Ltd
- Richard Hyde – Chief Executive, Hyde Ltd
- Sarah Gregory – Director, Development, Savills
- Shuranjeet Singh – Founder & Director of Taraki
- Stuart Penn – Regional Managing Director, Lovell
- Sukhy Duggal – Operations Director, Mace Group
- Joe Reeves - Deputy CEO - Midland Heart
- Chantelle Williams - Vistry
- Richard Law-Deeks - LGPS Central
- Andrew Assam - Homes Director, Lloyd
- Banking Group
- Christabell Amoakoh - RET Member
- Prof Chris White (Chair) – Manufacturing Technology Centre – Executive Director – Govt Relations
- Professor Nigel Driffield – University of Warwick, Business School – Prof and Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor
- Rob Johnston – TUC – Regional Secretary
- Tani Dulay – Woodbourne Group – Chief Executive
- Sajida Carr – Creative Black Country – Director of Operations & Development
- Manjit Singh Jhooty – Jhoots Pharmacy – CEO
- Steven Gardener
- Tim Davies Pugh – Power to Change – Chief Executive
- Andeep Mangal – Thapers Chartered Accountants – Director
- Jo Russell – Stoford Developments Limited – Planning Director
- Carol Burke – Unipart – MD
- Faron Mckenzie – BBC – Partnership Lead
- Mike Wright – WM Innovation Board – Chair
- Sarah Moorhouse – Black Country Chamber of Commerce – Chief Executive
- Cllr Paul Bradley – Dudley MBC – Deputy Leader
- Ayan Aden - RET Member
- Fern Elsdon-Baker (Chair) – University of Birmingham
- Chris Dowen – MoRServ Ltd
- Anisa Lokat-Fanning – Solihull Sixth Form College
- Alistair Crisp – Walk Wheel Cycle Trust
- Sarah Chandler – Safer Streets
- James Watts – Arup
- Philip Jones – PJA
- Beccy Marston – Active Travel Commissioner
- Mat MacDonald – Road Safety Commissioner
- Adrian Andrew – Walsall Council
- Carl Perrin – Coventry University
- Cllr Steve Evans – Wolverhampton Council
- Suffia Perveen - RET Member