Election 2021: West Yorkshire mayor candidates discuss housing

Voters in West Yorkshire will elect their first mayor on 6 May. The successful candidate will have powers over transport, adult education and policing, and they will also take control of housing. The BBC asked voters about their experiences, and put their concerns to the candidates.

Matthew Jeffrey, from Lower Wortley in Leeds, spent seven years trying to find suitable and affordable housing after he was evicted by a private landlord with no notice.

"I had a job and everything and one day the landlord just turned up and said he wanted me out the next day," he said.

"He changed the locks and I lost all my stuff."

Mr Jeffrey later took the landlord to court and received compensation, then three years ago, he faced a similar situation.

"It was terrible. I went into mental health problems, depression, anxiety. It was a struggle," he said.

"I had to go the council every day at half eight and sit there for two hours to pester them until I got a bit more priority and a council flat.

"I never ended up sleeping rough, but I quite easily could have done."

Mr Jeffrey, 38, wants those standing for mayor to explain how they would tackle a lack of affordable homes and homelessness.

"There's money there, we are meant to be the fourth richest country in the world, and if we can't support our homeless and vulnerable, what does that say about our society?"

All seven candidates (in alphabetical order) were asked for a short, one-policy answer to Mr Jeffrey's concerns:

Waj Ali, Reform UK

"One of my election pledges is to donate 50% of my mayoral salary from the first two years to combating overnight homelessness.

"Our homeless people are sleeping on the streets. Let's get our people off the streets; the ex-servicemen, the mental health crisis people.

"We've got to free up these council buildings and I am willing to put my money where my mouth is."

Tracy Brabin, Labour

"As someone who grew up in a council flat, I absolutely understand the value of social housing.

"I am committed to 5,000 homes being built that are social housing and affordable, because the waiting lists are far too long for too many properties.

"It's got to be in the right place at the right price to make sure people like Matthew can feel secure."

Bob Buxton, Yorkshire Party

"We need to build greener homes, including social housing, on regenerated ex-industrial sites and we need the new infrastructure to go with the new housing.

"Too often, we get the housing without the infrastructure to go with it."

Andrew Cooper, Green Party

"Yes, we've got to build more social housing, that's really important, but public housing is a public good and so we need to end the right-to-buy council housing.

"Because a lot of that council housing ends up as private sector housing and ends up as exactly the sort of places that our questioner was evicted from.

"That has got to end. We have got to have more social housing. We've got to make sure there is an alternative. Not poverty housing, but an alternative to owner-occupation, which millions of people simply cannot aspire too."

Stewart Golton, Liberal Democrat

"We need to challenge government to actually give us the powers to make a difference.

"At the moment, the housing minister has held back the spatial planning powers that the West Yorkshire mayor was meant to have.

"They will be given to us in time after the government has made it easy for their housing developer friends to develop the kind of housing they want.

"Unfortunately we are having too much executive-style housing built locally and not enough affordable housing that people can actually get their first rung on the ladder, whether through rent or buying."

Thérèse Hirst, English Democrats

"We have to build more social housing, not on greenfield land - it has to be on brownfield sites. Rents have to be controlled and low, so people can afford to pay their rents.

"I am quite passionate about inner city poverty and one of the things we can do is use our compulsory purchase orders to actually target really deprived areas within our inner cities, obviously with the consent of the residents who live there, and bulldoze some of these buildings that need to be bulldozed and put in new homes."

Matt Robinson, Conservative

"We actually need to make sure we protect our greenbelt and we put new homes in sustainable locations and we look at brownfield regeneration sites.

"Regeneration of communities is good for jobs, it's good for the local area and creates business opportunities too and that's what I want to do.

"I want to make sure that West Yorkshire authorities are coming together, working with the mayor to have a homelessness strategy that marries up across borders and links to mental health support as well."

A special programme with all the candidates- A Mayor for West Yorkshire - will be broadcast at 14:20 BST on Sunday on BBC One in Yorkshire.