What the 2024 mayoral elections mean for the built environment

The elections were expectedly poor for the Conservative Party, which lost almost half the council seats it previously held, as well as only being successful in one mayoral election for the Tees Valley, with Ben Houchen being re-elected. Many of the council seats were picked up by the Liberal Democrats, Green Party and independent candidates, with Labour winning the largest proportion of council seats changing hands.

Labour has been successful across all the other nine metro mayor elections, including the three new Combined Authorities, with Kim McGuinness elected for the North East, David Skaith for York & North Yorkshire and Claire Ward for the East Midlands. All previous Labour Metro Mayors were re-elected, Andy Burnham re-elected for Greater Manchester, Tracy Brabin for West Yorkshire, Steve Rotheram for the Liverpool City Region and Sadiq Khan for London. In the West Midlands, the Labour candidate narrowly beat the previous Conservative Mayor, Andy Street, by a margin of 1,500 votes.

With a strong Labour majority across mayoral and local elections, and the Liberal Democrats now holding more council seats than the Conservative Party, the 2024 local election results are disappointing for the Conservatives in the build-up to the General Election and indicate high chances of a change in government by the end of the year. 

The new metro mayors' priorities for the built environment

Metro mayor elections are significant events for the built environment sector within these city regions, with the new mayors setting their priorities and direction of travel for the Combined Authorities plans for the years ahead. The elected Metro Mayors have strategic decision-making powers available to them on key local matters that directly impact the built environment sector, with devolved funding available to them for programmes on housing, regeneration, retrofit and adult education. 

However, Metro mayors have different levels of powers and control on spending, with the three mayors across Greater Manchester, the North East and the West Midlands holding a trailblazer devolution deal allowing them greater freedom to determine how devolved funding is spent. Below are the key priorities of some of the newly elected mayors that directly impact on the regional built environment.

Greater Manchester: 

Andy Burnham campaigned with the message that the housing crisis is priority issue, saying that he will focus on both housing standards and availability if elected for another term. He is also looking to launch the Manchester Baccalaureate later in 2024 to promote technical education routes at an equal level to university education in Greater Manchester, and aims to lobby central government to devolve funds from the Apprenticeship Levy to Metro Mayors.

North East:  

For the new Labour Mayor, Kim McGuinness, improving the regional transport system is a priority. However, she also intends to focus on housebuilding and green construction, seeing the need for green skills in areas such as retrofit as opportunity for job creation in the region. Kim McGuinness wants to see more people with barriers to work supported to access skills training in areas such as green skills. 

West Midlands:

Richard Parker campaigned with the message that he wants to improve the skills market in the region, helping to reduce the brain drain to London and enable access for young unemployed people to gain qualifications and better paying jobs. One of his policies he said he would like to enact once he became the Mayor, would be to bring buses into public control and set-up a franchise system across the whole region for public transport. Richard Parker inherits an existing combined authority which, in recent years, has seen increased inward investment and big firms relocating to the region. His challenge will be retaining both businesses and skilled workers in the region whilst tackling the housing issue and his ideas for transportation. 

East Midlands:

Former Labour MP, Claire Ward’s campaign focused on working with local businesses to improve the local economy and improving skills knowledge and skills retention. During husting debates Claire Ward mentioned her plan to make a case to government to devolve the Department for Works & Pensions allowing local authorities to have better control. Now the first East Midlands Mayor, she will need to focus on getting the right structures in place for the combined authority before skills issues can be addressed.

Elsewhere:

Across the other mayoral combined authority areas, the elected mayors have a strong focus on supporting skills opportunities for young people and promoting technical education opportunities, with a focus on developing the local skills framework in a way that meets the need of local industry. For example, Tracy Brabin has promised to look at a new skills and training system for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Area, which would include support for young people to navigate technical education opportunities.

Improving housing also remains a key priority for the elected mayors, given the ongoing national housing shortage but also the low level of energy efficiency of the existing housing stock. Combined Authorities often receive dedicated funding for small retrofit initiatives. For example, Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, has been able to improve energy efficiency in low-income households by securing funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. Steve Rotheram, amongst other Mayors, aims to secure further funding from central government to be able to run more localised retrofit programmes.

CIOB’s plans following mayoral elections 2024

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), and other representative bodies for the built environment, will look to engage with the newly elected mayors as they develop their strategic plans for their Combined Authority areas. 

It is vital that Metro Mayors and their supporting teams understand the needs of the construction industry that are pivotal to delivering devolved programmes for regeneration, housing and improvement of the local economy. Many of our members work, live and play in these regions and we hope to see many of the planned projects being awarded to firms who are associated with professional body memberships as they indicate a high level of ethics, quality and professionalism that will help deliver the aims for the Combined Authority. 

David Barnes, acting head of policy and public affairs UK at CIOB, commented “The construction industry will continue to play an essential role in delivering the Metro Mayors’ priorities in the years ahead, particularly in the creation of high-quality housing and transport infrastructure as well as more localised repair, maintenance and improvement works. 

“CIOB will continue to inform the mayors of the key priorities for the sector and look forward in assisting them as they develop their localised plans."