Great to see Aktar Islam fresh off the back of a SECOND Michelin Star ⭐️⭐️

A huge asset to the WM, Opheem is our first ever restaurant to get two stars - a huge vote of confidence in our food scene 👏🏻

That’s one restaurant here with more stars than all of Manchester combined 😉

Our 9 and 10-year-olds are now the 4th best readers in the world.

Yet every step of the way, Labour opposed the policies that delivered this, saying 👇

❌ Phonics wouldn't work
❌ Our literacy drive was 'dull'

Labour's ideology is the biggest danger to children's education.

The year before I was Mayor, just £38m was invested in our transport network 👎🏻

This year our budget is OVER half a £BILLION👍🏻

This shows the difference a financially competent mayor can make, delivering major extensions whilst keeping fares low - and soon to be capped ✅

ICYMI: The Holocaust Memorial Bill is progressing through parliament.

The bill supports a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Gardens, giving people a dedicated space to remember its victims and preserve memories for future generations.

Over £1BILLION has been secured for regeneration in the Black Country 📈

But with councils struggling to spend it, I’m going to hire a BLACK COUNTRY REGENERATION COMMISSIONER 💪🏻

They’ll work to get the cash out the door quickly & effectively, revitalising our town centres 🏗️

Here are some of my new ideas as part of my plan for the West Midlands👇🏻

💻 Global tech festival

🗣️ Black Country Regeneration Commissioner

🚂 An acceleration plan to quicken the pace of delivery for transport projects

📚 40 careers advisors for the most-challenged schools

Our record on housing speaks for itself👇🏻

🎯 The only region ahead of housing targets
🤝🏻 30% affordability rate smashed
🌳 Brownfield first to protect the greenbelt

Now thanks to new powers & cash I’ve got from Government, we can triple the number of social homes being built 🏠

Great to meet with Keane Duncan for Mayor in Deighton earlier today. We discussed his exciting programme for the area, if he’s elected, including his plans to transform Scarborough and its Grand Hotel

Watford winning….

Enlightenment

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities is recruiting three Non-Executive Directors. They're particularly interested in applicants with experience in local government, devolution and large scale programmes.

…for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/roles/7664?tit…

People want us to address climate change in a fair way.

We push forward on attracting jobs and supporting industry, but we’re not going to heap unnecessary costs on ordinary families.

.William Dalrymple is sufficiently intelligent to know that the economic effects of imperial rule are contested and there many economic historians who disagree with him. Yet he pretends his own view is simply ‘fact’ and accuses Kemi Badenoch of ‘ideological wishful thinking’.

Everything a mayor should be and more

True dat

We’ve seen a worrying trend in our welfare system.

More and more people are being written off work unnecessarily, and spending is growing at an unsustainable rate.

So we’re doing something about it🧵

Our Renters Reform Bill is progressing to Report Stage next Wednesday.

The Bill will make the system fairer for landlords:

✅Protect landlords who are doing the right thing
✅More protection to repossess from anti social tenants

As ever Lee4NED is right - Labour on housing have nothing bold, nothing new, a lot’s that borrowed and all of that’s blue

Richly deserved!

The hysterical reaction by the Guardian-reading left to my speech on how smart regulation creates growth is fascinating 😀

I quote one of my favourite books “Why Nations Fail”. It explains how property rights & rule of law created certainty for the industrial revolution. (1/3)