Q&A with Conservative Party West of England Mayoral Combined Authority Metro Mayor candidate Steve Smith

Editor's note: earlier this month, the Bristol Initiative hosted the first hustings for the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority's next Metro Mayor with candidates from the Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties in attendance. We invited all candidates to do a Q&A on our blog, and here we speak to candidate Steve Smith of the Conservative Party.

What do you think a Metro Mayor’s role should be?

Championing the region, helping it compete effectively and deliver tangible improvements for local people and businesses. 

The Mayor should do this in two ways. Firstly, they should focus their direct powers and budget on where they can make a meaningful difference to the region’s challenges. The most immediate and significant of those is ensuring growth is sustainable and not detrimental to quality of life. We need a long-term transport plan that delivers a better bus service, bigger rail network and sensible approach to roads. We also need to really focus on an ambitious “brownfield first” policy – this is the only way to meet the need for homes, ease the pressure on the Green Belt and deliver vital regeneration projects. The Mayor must tailor skills funding to be aligned with the needs of local businesses to ensure a workforce ready to meet the needs of the region’s employers. 

Secondly, the Mayor must also use their “soft power” to build relationships locally, nationally and globally. That means working cross-party and alongside business, the universities, and the third sector to build a team that bats for the region. We are competing for finite public and private investment against other regions and we must do that as a united single team. 

We have seen how Mayors like Andy Burnham, Andy Street and Ben Houchen have succeeded with this approach and achieved major successes for their regions. 

My approach will be the same – to bring a practical, business-like approach to the role focused on delivery. 

What would be your top priorities for your first year in office?

First, resolve some of the problems that have bedevilled WECA. That means powering out of special measures, rebuilding relationships and refocusing the organisation on delivery. We need to significantly enhance the credibility and the effectiveness of the organisation to ensure that it is seen in the future as a viable and worthy partner. Above all that the West of England is seen by Government and business as a place to invest and back with investment. 

I will be looking to, and hopefully leaning on, Business West for your collective help and expertise to achieve it. 

Second, get on with sorting out our transport system.  I want a roadmap in place within my first 100 days to move to a franchised bus system.  That isn’t going to be quick or easy but the best time to start is now!  I’ll also focus on getting the five new train stations built in the next two years and get going on business cases for the next ones.  Finally, I’ll speed up the work on developing a credible business case for a mass transit system for the region.

Third, I will produce a much more ambitious and radical ‘brownfield first’ policy. The region’s businesses and universities have led the way with developments like Temple Quay – we now need to deliver even more ambitious schemes like Broadmead. Plus, I will to work with industry, and local Councils, to unlock the huge amount of development sites that have planning permission, but are stalled for whatever reason. 

How do you plan to collaborate with the business community to ensure policies meet regional needs?

My over-riding goal is to grow our region’s economy, create more jobs and I’m well aware that it is business who will achieve that, not politicians!  We need a cultural change at the Combined Authority to ensure it is open, outward facing and welcoming of external talent – starting with the business sector. 

My door will be open, my phone will be on and I want to hear from you.

More specifically, there are two roles that I will invite business to play in my Combined Authority.  

First, an Advisory group working alongside me and senior officers, like a beefed-up version of the Local Enterprise Partnership.  This won’t just be a token presence at occasional meetings. It needs to make a real contribution to setting the Combined Authority’s strategy and priorities, bringing knowledge of the opportunities for our region, and the barriers that we need to overcome.

Second, an investment board advising on where the Authority should invest its money in order to get the outcomes that we want.  Too often the Combined Authority has acted as a “piggy bank” for Councils to pursue their individual projects. Millions have been spent on small, often worthy, projects which simply miss the bigger picture and don’t turn the dial on our objectives.  There needs to be a much stronger focus on investing with purpose with strategic goals around very clearly defined priorities like promoting growth, regeneration and better transport.  

If I am Mayor, business will have the biggest stake in WECA’s role ever.

How would you raise our region’s profile with government and the private sector to secure the investment that we need?

We need to be much better at telling our region’s story. The West of England is a great place to live, work and invest but we haven’t always made that case as successfully as other regions. We have to recognise and act on the basis that we are competing with other City-regions to win investment. 

We should have a common story about what makes our region great and why you should invest here. I will bring together the many private and public bodies into one team to develop and communicate a compelling narrative that we can go out into the world and sell. 

Our relationship with Government is critical. Other Mayors have demonstrated how they can influence Government policy and funding decisions to benefit their areas. We must do the same – that means being able to demonstrate impeccable governance, sound business plans and coherent working across Councils and sectors. Something that has sadly been lacking.

I will be shameless in supporting economic growth. No caveats or excuses. Now more than ever people need access to high-quality well-paid jobs for their family’s future. That’s what we have to achieve and promote.  

It is only working with the private sector we can do that, especially with the public finances now so strained. We must decide what matters to us strategically, where we can succeed and pitch for it as a team. 

As Mayor I would be a figurehead and a convenor, but the region’s success depends on the strength of the team.
 

Why are you best placed to be Metro Mayor?

Like you I’m a businessman.  After several years running other peoples’ businesses, for the last five years I’ve run my own, advising providers who are bidding for public sector contracts.  My profession is all about competing to win investment and jobs – so I think that’s a good apprenticeship for being Mayor. 

I also have experience in the private, public and voluntary sectors.  I’ve been a charity leader, as CEO of Young Bristol, taking the charity from reliance on generous public grants to self-sufficiency.  I’ve worked in the NHS, running a group of GP practices and then becoming a founding non-executive director of our local GP Federation, representing general practice alongside senior NHS leaders.

I started my career working in large corporates developing plans for new schools and hospitals and winning a £450m business process outsourcing contract.

I will take a business-like approach to the job.  I am going for interview – but the interview panel for this role is around 700,000 people! 

In recent months I have campaigned around the region, alongside local people, on the issues that matter to them. This has shaped my plan: to stop frittering away millions closing and curtailing road use, to grow a sustainable and better bus service, to expand the rail network significantly, to champion the Green Belt, to promote urban regeneration and underpinning all of this to grow the economy and jobs. 

If I am successful in my interview on the 1st May I look forward to a strong and successful partnership between us.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this guest blog are those of the author. Business West is an apolitical organisation and does not endorse any statements provided in this guest blog.