The Mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority launched the West Midlands Growth Project on 15 September 2025 at the House of Commons.

The vision is to increase residents’ living standards across all parts of the West Midlands. This means bringing more people into good quality jobs, increasing the productivity of the region’s economy and reducing poverty and deprivation, while making further progress on our journey to net zero.

The Growth Plan is specific in setting out four big changes that need to happen: to achieve in ten years and the actions WMCA will start to take over the coming three years:

Empowering the people of the West Midlands to get on in life;
Enabling the businesses of the West Midlands to become more productive and provide good jobs;
Making the places of the West Midlands more prosperous and resilient; and
Telling the West Midlands’ story and strengthening its partnerships.

I am pictured with the Mayor Richard Parker, Cllr Adrian Andrew and Jat Sharma, Walsall College.

I was delighted to visit Bloxwich Academy Primary. I was shown around by Assistant Headmaster, Nicola Stubbs, (who I am pictured with) on 12 September 2025.

The School have established a scheme to help children with reading and I was pleased to hear about the Reading Ambassadors scheme which ensures the upkeep of the libraries and where sixth form volunteers also help KS1 and KS2 with reading opportunities.

It was a pleasure to visit the Library. Next year the Government has designated " the Year of Reading" where everyone will be encouraged to read for pleasure.  

Bloxwich Academy Primary engages the children with 4 school houses,  linked to local charities and hospitals. Each house supports a charity, Telford – Birmingham Children’s Hospital;  Watt – Acorns Children’s Hospice; Stevenson – Teenage Cancer Trust;  Brindley – Trussell Trust.

 

The House of Commons met to consider amendments to the Bill on 10 September 2025.

Buses are the country’s most popular form of public transport. Local buses accounted for 58% of ticketed public transport journeys in Great Britain in the year ending March 2023, and are an essential part of the national transport system. However, passenger numbers and bus service levels have been in decline. The Bill gives transport authorities the power to determine the bus operating model that works for their local area and provide powers to effectively underpin those models. This should help improve bus services and grow usage, ensuring that services are safer, more reliable and more accessible.

Four amendments were selected for debate and votes:

New Clause 2, which would require the Secretary of State to remove time restrictions on the use of disabled concessionary travel passes: Ayes 69, Noes 300.


Amendment 58, an opposition amendment regarding franchising schemes: Ayes 92, Noes 364.









Amendment 23, which would require the Secretary of State to assess of the impact of ending the £2 bus fare cap on passengers’ ability to access socially necessary local services: Ayes 158, Noes 297. 





Amendment 10, which would allow local transport authorities to prohibit disruptive anti-social forms of noise such as from telephones through byelaws: Ayes 153, Noes 300.


The motion was put that the Bill be read a third time and passed: Ayes 362, Noes 87. The amendments to the Bill will now be considered by the House of Lords.

On 9 September 2025 I attended and intervened in a debate secured by Helen Hayes MP's adjournment debate on the accessibility of railway stations. 

 I made the following intervention:

"she mentioned a list of stations in her constituency,  I would like to mention Bescot Stadium station in my constituency. Does she agree that if a station is inaccessible, the figures that are quoted for its footfall will be much lower?"

Helen Hayes MP replied:

"My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that the figures cannot account for passengers who cannot access a station, and I welcome her campaign for the station in her constituency. This is a national issue."

In another intervention, I asked Simon Lightwood MP, the Minister for Transport:

"I would be grateful if the Minister could say how disabled people are counted in the footfall count."

The Minister responded:

"Perhaps I could come back to my right hon. Friend on that—I will consult the Rail Minister and ensure that I get her an accurate answer."

I have campaigned for Bescot Stadium Station to be made accessible and was pleased to be able to raise the issue again reminding the Minister that the criteria for funds to make the station accessible need to be updated. 

As Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Publishing, I was delighted to attend the Publishers Association’s Annual Reception in Parliament on Tuesday 9 September 2025.

We heard speeches from the Publishers Association’s President and Managing Director of Academic Publishing at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, Mandy Hill; Baroness Gail Rebuck, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Publishing; and author and academic, Professor Mike Berners-Lee.

Mike Berners-Lee and I discussed his new book, A Climate of Truth, and the need to raise the standards of honesty in politics.

(Main photo L-R: Rt Hon Valerie Vaz MP, Professor Mike Berners-Lee, Baroness Gail Rebuck, Mandy Hill, Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association)