Forward thinking: a conversation with Claire Ward, the Mayor of the East Midlands

A lot of people in the East Midlands still don't really know what a regional mayor does, or that they have one. How do you explain your job to the average person?

I would say that when we look at smaller areas, like council areas or smaller towns, we don't get the best of the investment, and we aren't able to shout as much for that area. But when we bring it all together into an area that makes sense, like the East Midlands, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, then we can plan things that bring more money in and more skills in and have a transport system that works for people, and we can make the case to government or to businesses that want to come and invest in us. So we're actually able to grow the pie more, so that there's more value for peoplePhoenix Rising – D.H. Lawrence, Son and Lover who live here. 

It's a connection. Over the years different authorities have competed with each other, so they don't get anything. But when you work together, we're able to secure much bigger pots of money, we're able to think about where we put some of those jobs and skills and opportunities. Most people don't think about the boundaries that politicians think about - you will get people who will say, ‘Well, I'm from Nottingham’ - they may not actually live in the city of Nottingham, but that's what they identify with. I think if we blur the boundaries, we're actually in a position where we can do much more for people.

Every day is different, so part of my job is to be an ambassador for the region, talking to government, and trying to secure new powers that we can bring locally - and that's quite a lot about the devolution agenda at the moment - so that we can make decisions closer to people, instead of government making decisions, whether that be on transport, or skills, for example. 

One of the areas that we've been arguing with government, and I’m really pleased the new Prime Minister understands it because he was a mayor and is agreeing with the rest of the mayors now that he's PM, which is to say that when you're looking at skills for sixteen year olds, those pathways shouldn't be determined from Whitehall. They should be determined locally because mayors and their authorities have a better understanding of what the local labour market is, what the transport systems are like, who the employers are, where the colleges are, what the travel routes are, and what the needs are. That's really important. And so, being a regional mayor allows you to represent your region, and make decisions based upon the communities that you know.

Just over two years in, how has the job matched (or not matched) what you expected when you ran for it?

I think it's probably exceeded what I thought, because there's always more that can be done and suddenly you realise that to fix one thing you need to look at wider issues. 

I came into this because I felt frustrated that lots of younger people in this region were leaving. They didn't feel they had the right jobs in the region, they didn't feel that there were opportunities, I felt that as somebody who was at that time, the Chair of a hospital trust in Nottinghamshire, we were seeing so many people arriving at our front, door needing healthcare, but actually, much of that was determined by other things going on their lives that we didn't have control of - maybe whether they had a good house, what kind of environment they lived in, whether they had jobs or skills and all of those determinants of good health, for which I didn't have any levers, but we do have more levers doing this job.

You were a member of Parliament in Watford from 1997 to 2010, and then you spent time away from politics. What did this time give you that you could bring into this role?

I think I probably wouldn't have done this had I not had that experience. In the thirteen or so years out of frontline politics, I moved to Nottinghamshire with my family, I was involved in my local community, I was a school governor, and involved in local projects. 

Also, where I worked, particularly across pharmacy, business, and healthcare meant I had to work with people with lots of different politics or no politics at all. So I saw things differently - I saw the importance of finding common ground to move things forward. Sometimes when you're entrenched in the House of Commons, it can be very tribal. My experience in business, in both the private and public sector, and working with a range of people has meant that I bring all of that as well as my parliamentary experience into this role. I strongly believe Mayors have to put place before party. 

What's actually changed in that time on the ground for someone living in Nottingham or Derby that they'd notice?

Well, for a start we are seeing lots of change around Broad Marsh. That sat like that for far too long, so I'm very excited about the partnership that we've got with Homes England, and with Nottingham City Council. People are already starting to see building of homes, for example, on Nottingham War Rooms in Beechdale. Those would not have happened if it wasn't for the Brownfield Housing Fund. We are allocating money to make those sites viable, not just in Nottingham but right across the region, which will bring us thousands of homes.

As a result of being able to unlock Brownfield land, we're seeing investment into transport systems. For example, we're now promoting the Ride app in the city, both in Nottingham and Derby, and using that as the basis to think about how we want transport to work across the region. So, we've got a pilot that we're working with the government on in the Hope Valley in Derbyshire, which is about rural transport. That is a demonstrator called ‘Mini Switzerland’, because in Switzerland, they have a very carefully timed timetable of trains and buses so that they interact properly with each other - as you get off one, there's one waiting to take you onwards. 

Young people in the city, just in August, will have seen a real benefit as the Government introduced a summer of free travel for five to fifteen year olds, but I topped that up in the region because I wanted sixteen to eighteen year olds to have it. I really feel that age group have a very tough time, and it's costly to get around. You're at that stage when you've just finished GCSEs, you want a bit of freedom and you may not have a lot of money. It's about independence and I'm making a real focus in my time as mayor on what we can do to support our younger generation.

There’s also the UK Youth Guarantee - we've got a high proportion in this region of NEET young people - not in employment, education or training, so we're providing programs working with Nottingham College, which means that some of those young people are being brought back closer to the workplace, that help them to get that confidence to get those skills that mean, they can go volunteer, and that's another pathway into work or into training or apprenticeships. 

Who or what shaped your politics before you first stood for office? Was there a specific moment growing up that pushed you towards it?

For me, what shaped a lot of my politics was coming from a family where my dad and subsequently, my mum, was involved in local politics in the Labour Party as local councillors. It was the time of the miner’s strike, and having lived in pit villages we were really keen to support miners' families. So that was a real eye-opener for me about how political decisions get made, and how things that impact local communities and families. So that's why for me politics became really important. I was involved in the Labour Party from a young age and involved in the National Executive Committee as the youth representative.

I also think being an MP during that time of a Labour government, from 1997 onwards was really exciting. We brought in the minimum wage, we invested into schools, we had Sure Start, waiting lists for hospitals and operations came down. It was a fantastic time to be able to see that delivery.

I think since 2008, the financial crash really changed so much for the majority of people - not for everybody in this country. We went through austerity from 2010 under the Conservatives, and we've seen so many cuts to our public services in that time. Now a Labour government has come in and we’re trying to deal with a more dangerous, difficult world, with a high cost of living, but also institutions and public services that have been under-invested in for so long. We have a desire that we do politics differently, and that's why I'm so excited about the devolution agenda, because we are too centralised and more has to change - this rewiring of our country is an absolute necessity.

In July, Andy Burnham became the first of the new regional Mayors to become Prime Minister. What’s your relationship with him like? And do you see this as an opportunity for regional Mayors to work more closely with the central government?

I've known Andy for a very long time, I knew him before he became an MP. He became an MP four years after me. Obviously we were in the same government and I was his whip at one point. I even played football with him. 

I think the role that he undertook in Manchester shows that devolution works - that when you put a place first, when you connect all of the decisions you make around that place, you can make a big difference.

He's certainly done that in Manchester, and I think he's bringing that experience, plus his experience of having been in government in the past. I think sometimes people forget that he was a member of the cabinet as Secretary of State, so he knows how government works, he knows the levers that need to be pulled and the things that don't work in government.

What I'm getting that sense of, certainly in the last two months, is that he listens to people, and he is responding to people's need for hope. It's really difficult to get on in life if you constantly feel that the skies are grey and there isn't enough money at the end of the week, but if you feel that there's a bit of blue sky ahead, and somebody is showing you things that they're doing to make that difference, I think that lifts the country.

You moved to North Nottinghamshire fifteen years ago and raised your family there - what's your actual local life like? Favourite local spot, regular haunt, guilty pleasure?

We actually live in North Nottinghamshire, so for some time I didn't really come as much into Nottingham because it felt like such a distance for me, but I think it's a great place to live.

I live quite close to Clumber Park, which I think is the most popular National Trust place in the country. I like to go sailing at Danehill Lake. I'm a frequent shopper around Retford, which is probably my nearest market town, or Newark sometimes, and I’ve started going for brunch in Edwinstowe.

The thing I miss about living in Watford or London, is what you have here in Nottingham - there's the diversity of food and drink, and entertainment on your doorstep, so I'm an hour away from that. 

You've talked about the region historically missing out on funding because there was no single voice pitching for it. Can you point to one concrete thing – a project, a building, a bus route - that exists now because of that collective pitch?

So with transport, the Ride app, that we’re adopting now for the region and we'll invest into that to expand it and make it work much wider outside of the cities. But if we didn't have the East Midlands Mayor and the combined authority that goes with it, we wouldn't have the two billion transport settlement that we've got, that will allow us over the next few years to invest into our transport infrastructure, to our bus network. So we're already buying new buses for Nottingham City Transport – that's a huge part of what will help us with transport, but it will also help with our emissions, having electric buses. 

So I think, when you bring it together, there's more money coming into the East Midlands, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire, than there would be otherwise, and it means that we can co-ordinate and have a bigger strategy about how we use that to grow the economy. Because that's ultimately my job – how do I grow the local economy and do that isn't just about those businesses, it's about people. It's about the skills that they need, the infrastructure, the transport they need, and a great environment to live in. 

Broad Marsh in Nottingham appears to finally be moving after years of false starts - what does success actually look like there, and what happens if it stalls again?

So we've outlined what we want to see in partnership with Homes England, and with the City Council, which is retail, community space, and homes. And as a result of all of those things, we will improve that public area, provide jobs and lift the city. 

I think it will be the gateway that the city needs as you come out of the train station. It's taken too long before but we've made those decisions, the investment has been agreed, we've already got the NHS Urgent Treatment Centre, which will be opened first, and that's really exciting. 

But this should just be the start – we want more companies to think about locating there, more retail businesses moving in there, and we want the city to be a vibrant place that people enjoy. They can come and enjoy the nightlife, they feel they can shop, and they've got a choice of places to go and eat. The cultural scene of the city is something I think we need to enhance as well, and we really need to promote that. 

What are your thoughts on promoting tourism in the region?

Visitor economy is really important to me. I've got an ambition to grow it by a billion pounds in the next ten years. That means I want more people coming and spending their money and staying. We know that the planning application for the expansion of the City Ground is imminent and I'm really supportive about that. My team is working closely with the local councils on that because we see that expansion as the catalyst for change around the rest of that Trent ‘Sports District’ as we're calling it. Very few areas have top flight sports all within walking distance – whether it be the two football clubs, the cricket, the Panthers, the tennis, the Watersports Centre. We really ought to promote it more and it needs to be connected as a destination for people who come and spend their money here.

We’ve brought Visit Nottinghamshire and Visit Derbyshire together under an umbrella called Visit East Midlands and next month we're launching a Visit East Midlands strategy.

We need to think about what some of those [tourism] products are, particularly around Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest and the caves. That's a challenge  – we don't promote enough of the gems that we've got in this region. Things like Warhammer, as well – people travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to come to Warhammer World, so it's such a huge asset. And then linking it up with the Peak District. It's gorgeous and an hour at the most – to Americans and Australians that's down the road. 

How involved are you in the Local Government Reform project ? Now the new boundaries are settled (in Notts at least) what do you see as the biggest challenges for the next few years? And what do you see as the opportunities this will bring in future? 

I've never been involved in the details of where those boundaries are. I do think it's right that we should have local government reorganisation, because our city does need to expand. But also because with two layers of councils out in the counties, it's not the best use of resources. It's confusing for people as to, for example, which council does what, who looks after the bins and recycling, who deals with highways.

So I think making that more streamlined would be better value for people. Fewer politicians in the process. We've got a pause at the moment because of legal advice to the government, so they're going to be reviewing the options that have been chosen in this region and then we'll see what happens. But a huge amount of effort has been put in and I do think in principle we need to get on with local government reorganisation. I will work with whatever that option is, because my job is to do something slightly different and work with the people who get elected in those councils.

You can find out more about the Mayor of the East Midlands and the combined county authority at eastmidlands-cca.gov.uk