Birmingham's new council leaders have made their first two requests to incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham, both aimed at solving the city's housing crisis. Councillor Roger Harmer (Liberal Democrats, council leader) and Councillor Julien Pritchard (Green Party, deputy leader) told regional business leaders they intend to lobby the new PM for support to build council houses locally and to crack down on the city's dire supported exempt housing sector.
Housing Crisis at the Forefront
Speaking at the 'Connections for Prosperity' annual conference organised by the Centre for New Midlands, Cllr Harmer, who represents Acocks Green, described the shortage of affordable and social housing as the single biggest issue facing the city. He said: "I'd say to give us collectively as a city the opportunity to sort out our housing problems. That includes building more social housing. Give us the resources and we will get on with it."
Harmer highlighted the scale of the problem: "Forty years ago we had close to 120,000 council homes for rent. We are now down to 57,000 or so. We are a city with over 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation. The biggest hotel in my ward is essentially a temporary accommodation centre, along with large nursing homes. It is a stain on our society that we have let that happen by not investing enough year on year."
Supported Exempt Accommodation Crisis
The leaders also emphasised the need to regulate supported exempt accommodation, a type of shared HMO that operates without a licence or planning permission. Harmer noted: "We have a need in this city for 10-11,000 beds for people with needs, yet we now have 33,000 people here. We are sucking in people from around the rest of the country and that accommodation is largely unregulated. Some people are making a lot of money out of people's misery."
He added that an Act passed three years ago to bring regulation to the sector has not been enacted, and one of their first asks will be to get those regulations enforced.
Political Earthquake in Birmingham
The coalition of Greens, Lib Dems, and Better Birmingham Independents formed a minority administration after the May 7 election, ousting Labour from power. Cllr Pritchard described the result as "a political earthquake," with voters fed up with dirty streets, uncollected bins, anti-social behaviour, and poorly run supported exempt accommodation.
Vision for the Future
Cllr Pritchard said their aim is for a city where people are proud of their neighbourhoods, with a cleaner, greener, fairer, and more equal Birmingham, with more council housing built. Cllr Harmer added that the council must restore confidence by acting on daily issues like clean streets, potholes, local services, and reducing anti-social behaviour.
The conference brought together around 250 delegates, including business leaders and policymakers, to discuss regional prosperity.
