From brownfield to beautiful – delivering change for people and places: Kim McGuinness

I stood to be North East mayor on a manifesto to create real opportunity for people in our region.

I promised to create good quality, affordable homes, tackle child poverty and build the infrastructure of opportunity, with each powered by a transport network that works for everyone.

As mayor, I won’t sit back and let villages and towns be overlooked, or let land sit idle while social waiting lists for homes grow longer and families are locked out of the housing they desperately need.

And we’ve been fast off the mark.

Already, in my first six months in office, we’ve approved investment in major housing and regeneration projects at Riverside Sunderland and Horden, in County Durham.

We’ve backed investment to begin site clearance at Forth Yards, in Newcastle, a flagship scheme led by Newcastle City Council and Homes England.

They are down payments on my ambition to build the affordable homes families in the region desperately need, and turn brownfield sites into beautiful places people can be proud of.

We’ll build homes local people need, and create thriving communities with shops, green spaces and transport links, rather than vast identikit estates that are miles away from work and public transport.

We signed a strategic place partnership with Homes England to allow us to work together for the long term, to unlock new homes and regeneration for places that have been overlooked for too long.

I’m working with Homes England and ministers to understand how we can increase the number of social and council homes – genuinely affordable to local people – as part of their investments.

That means we will need further powers and resources at a local level to deliver our ambition for the North East.

However, we know homes on their own are not enough, and too often we see housing built without the infrastructure, amenities and services people need to find work, get around our region and improve their lives.

We are investing more than £170 million for bus improvements to infrastructure, services and affordable fares across the region, while pushing ahead with plans to take our buses back into public control.

We’ll bring places back onto the public transport network for the first time in a generation, by re-opening the Leamside Line and extending the Metro to Washington.

It’s these kinds of investments that can transform our region, not just by making it easier to get around, but using transport to join up investment in homes and jobs around stations and employment sites.

It’s about building the infrastructure of opportunity – one which will tackle child poverty and connect people to the jobs, training and cultural offer we’re creating across the North East.

This is not just about the physical and visible regeneration of our places.

It’s about how we make sure our investment delivers renewal and opportunity for people too.

That way, people will feel the benefit of devolution and the opportunities we’re creating – making a brighter future for our great North East.