(Samaj Weekly)- Quality of life for people across the West Midlands was actually getting shorter, poorer, and less safe – even before Covid struck – Labour MP and Shadow Mayor Liam Byrne reveals in a damning file of “Thirty Failures” by the Conservative government and their West Midlands Mayor.
Byrne was stunned to find the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of West Midlanders was already falling before the Covid pandemic struck, even though it was rising for the rest of the UK.
He said:
“Our Tory Mayor seems to think that it’s acceptable for us just to go back to business as usual. These damning figures show why that’s simply wrong and why it’s time we had a Mayor determined to build back stronger, fairer and greener.
“While healthy life expectancy was going up across the UK before Covid, in our region it was actually going down”, explained Liam Byrne. “It seems a Tory Mayor is bad for our health. And that’s according to the Mayor’s own figures.
“This single fact must make us question the government and their Mayor’s impact on the region.”
The dossier goes out on to set out:
– The 13 ways residents in the region are poorer – or have lost out on Covid recovery funds
– The 3 key ways residents are now less safe
– The 8 ways young people have been failed
– The 5 ways the Mayor is not delivering on the basics
Byrne went on:
“Across the dashboard the lights are flashing red – and that was before we lost out to the North West and East Midlands in the Budget.
“Violent crime has doubled in just three years, recorded crime has increased by almost a fifth and drug offences by a third – because nearly one in five of our police officers has been lost in the last ten years. We want safer streets.
“We are the youngest region in the UK, but our young people have seen services for them slashed by 80% in ten years. Apprenticeships had fallen by 40%, before Covid, so that’s over 24,000 young people who are not getting a decent start to their working lives.
“Our qualification rate is falling even though the average for Britain is rising. Today, our economy is the worst hit of any region in the UK. We have 1 in 6 shops closed. Nor do we get a fair share of government investment.
“When the present Mayor took office, he did so by emphasising his business credentials.
“But before Covid he led an economy where exports fell by £2 billion from 2019 to 2020. Since Covid, we’ve suffered a 21% fall in economic output by the middle of 2020, making us the worst hit region in the country.
“His much-trumpeted Metro expansion has seen just 1 ¼ miles of new track, when a snail travels five times further than that in a year.
“‘I started this research to understand the region I want to lead. What I have found is a region that is yet to be led.
“For too long the Mayor’s has flattered his figures by trading on the achievements of Labour’s three great cities, Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton along with the proud borough of Sandwell. Think what the whole region could do if we had a Labour Mayor to back them up and spread the good work across the region.”
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