A blueprint of bravery, credibility and delivery
It takes a certain kind of political courage to put your neck on the block.
But that’s exactly what West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker has just done.
With the release of his new West Midlands Growth Plan, he hasn’t just laid out a strategy for prosperity. He’s set himself an index of success. Clear. Measurable. Timebound.
There’ll be no hiding if this doesn’t deliver. But equally, if it does, and there’s good reason to believe it might, we could be looking at a mayor with the sort of long-term credibility most regional politicians only dream of.
This isn’t a think tank report or a fanfare-heavy vision. It’s something grittier. Sharper. A working document for grown-ups.
A serious plan, built to be judged
The plan spells out five headline targets. All bold. All brave:
- Economic growth of 2% per annum
- 150,000 new jobs
- Halving youth unemployment
- Boosting housing completions
- Lifting 100,000 people out of poverty
These are not the soft-focus hopes of some halfway house committee. These are line-in-the-sand commitments. You can’t fudge them. You can’t re-spin them. Parker is saying: judge me by this.
And that, frankly, takes guts.
In an age of risk-averse politics and sandbagged expectations, it’s a rarity. But perhaps that tells us something about the man himself.
Parker the professional
Parker is no amateur. Long before he entered politics, he built his career in the sharp-edged world of PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the Big Four firms where performance isn’t a buzzword, it’s the whole game.
He knows how to run a project. How to read a budget. How to make 12 months count.
That’s what gives this Growth Plan its edge. It reads like something written by someone who’s had to deliver, not just promise. There’s a steeliness underneath. A quiet confidence. And it’s becoming increasingly clear, Parker might just be that rare thing in politics: a grown-up in charge.
Delivery in four acts
The plan isn’t just aspirational. It’s operational. Broken into four major workstreams:
- Jobs and economic growth
- Tackling poverty
- Housing and infrastructure
- Public service reform
Each area has a 12-month delivery focus, pushing beyond slogans into specifics. For example, Parker wants to see real progress on land remediation, real reform in childcare access, and real advances in innovation zones.
This isn’t about grandstanding. It’s about getting things moving. This year.
And here’s the kicker. By putting timelines on paper, Parker isn’t just inviting judgment. He’s demanding it.
He’s telling us, this is my mark, and I intend to meet it.
The politics of performance
Parker’s approach stands out because it breaks the mould. He is not waiting for the next election cycle to hand out hope. He is laying foundations now. If he delivers even half of what’s in this plan, he will redefine what it means to lead a Combined Authority.
In fact, this might be the first time a regional mayor has drawn a direct line between policy and personal accountability quite so clearly.
And here’s the thing. If the West Midlands moves even modestly towards those five headline goals, Parker will not just have shifted the dial locally. He will have carved out a model for how progressive governance can look in a complex, post-Brexit, post-pandemic Britain.
A moment in the making
This may well be Richard Parker’s moment. He’s not shouting. He’s not playing games. He’s not trading on slogans.
Instead, he is planning. Building. Committing.
That kind of politics might just catch on.
