West of England Mayor Dan Norris hopes to safeguard jobs and businesses

Dan Norris said as Mayor of the West of England he welcomed other councils that wished to join WECA

The newly-elected Mayor of the West of England says helping people to find employment once the furlough scheme ends in the autumn is his top priority.

Former Labour MP Dan Norris was elected on Saturday taking over from Conservative Tim Bowles.

He said: "Lots of people are incredibly anxious about that, they all know that it's going to be a difficult time."

He added that he was also keen to see Somerset and North Somerset councils join the West of England authority.

'Look outwards'

He said he wanted to ensure new skills and training were made available if people had to change jobs.

"Obviously I will be working hard to support our brilliant local businesses right across the region whether they be in Bath, North East, South Gloucestershire or Bristol to make sure that we don't have any job losses if we can possibly do that," he added.

He also said he would welcome more councils joining the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) partnership, such as North Somerset and Somerset.

"I'm interested in them joining too because I think that we need to expand and look outwards and have more connections further afield from our region," he said.

"I think the communities of Frome and Wells and places like that should also be part of our region if we can possibly make it that way, and they're happy to join us, because I think we get greater benefits by working together... in terms of transport systems and climate change."

If they were to join, he pledged the first tranche of councils to join WECA would not lose any money from the £1bn funding deal.

Instead he would aim to secure new funding for joining councils.