Current political landscape

In May 2021, Conservative Andy Street was re-elected the metro mayor of the West Midlands, winning with 54.0% of the vote. Second was Liam Byrne with 46.0%. Turnout was 31.2%.

This page brings together the key facts and figures about the city-region’s economy.

Economic outlook

The West Midlands consists of the following local authorities: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton.

Understanding how the city-region performs on key areas such as productivity and employment helps the new metro mayor to assess what he should prioritise. The table below shows how West Midlands compares to the national average on these indicators.

What powers does the West Midlands metro mayor have?

Below is a summary of the powers the new West Midlands metro mayor has.

What are the policy priorities for the West Midlands metro mayor?

We outlined three policy priorities for the West Midlands metro mayor to focus on:

Policy 1: Continue the turnaround of Birmingham and Coventry city centres, to support their roles as centres of knowledge-based jobs to improve job opportunities for all West Midlands residents

• Use the convening power of the mayor to help Birmingham city centre get back on its feet
• Continue to focus on city centres in economic development plans
• Make sure housebuilding keeps pace with demand, and is built where it is needed

Policy priority 2: Get people back into work

• Support people that are economically inactive to be work-ready
• Conduct an audit of adult education spend in the West Midlands
• Embed evaluation in the numerous employment and training programmes currently piloted in the city region

Policy priority 3: Improve the bus network, and boost ridership

• Use franchising powers to take control over bus services
• Introduce a congestion charge in Birmingham city centre
• Invest in buses using congestion charge revenues