Dan Norris has been elected the West of England's new metro mayor in a major win for Labour.
The former MP will succeed the current Conservative mayor, Tim Bowles, who is stepping down from politics when his term ends.
There was a 36.61% turnout to the May 6 polls - equating to 256,632 verified votes - with Mr Norris winning a total of 125,482 votes. In the race to victory, he beat the Conservative Party's Samuel Williams by more than 40,000 votes.
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In the first round of voting Mr Norris secured 84,434 votes to Mr William's 72,415. The Green Party’s Jerome Thomas, who secured 54,919 votes, and the Liberal Democrats’ Stephen Williams, with 41,193 votes, went out in the first round.
Mr Norris said: "I'd like to thank the people of Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bristol who have voted for me today.
"It’s a huge honour to be elected as Metro Mayor for an amazing part of the world that I am so proud to call home.
"I will show the difference an active Metro Mayor makes for our region. This role is about collaboration and I will be a Metro Mayor who listens carefully and works cooperatively.
"I’m determined to hit the ground running with a Jobs and Skills summit in my first 100 days and my Green Recovery Plan.
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"I also know that the pandemic has been tough and as we build back, invest in jobs and our high streets, we must learn key lessons. Together we can create a society where we keep looking out for each other and value what’s truly important."
As metro mayor Mr Norris will head up the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), which comprises Bristol city, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils. North Somerset Council chose not to be part of the combined authority from the outset.
Mr Norris is only the second mayor of Weca; a job which was first created in 2017. He will be responsible for the region’s strategic development of business, skills, housing and transport.
Weca is also spearheading the recovery plan for the region to make sure the right support and infrastructure is in place for residents and businesses to overcome the economic blow of Covid.
Who is Dan Norris?
Mr Norris was MP for Wansdyke from 1997 until the seat was abolished in 2010 when he lost to Jacob Rees-Mogg for the North East Somerset seat. He became a government minister at Defra in 2009.
Following his defeat at the general election of 2010, Mr Norris turned his attention to working for former foreign secretary David Miliband in his ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Labour leadership.
In May 2012, he was shortlisted to be the Labour Party candidate for Mayor of Bristol, but did not win the selection.
What has he promised to do?
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Housing and planning
- Create truly liveable towns and cities with high-quality and zero-carbon design, with walkable access to outdoor green space and local public services;
- Convenient public transport and walking and cycling links, with less focus on motorway development;
- Home and town design suitable for elderly people and disabled people so they can lead independent lives;
- Make it a requirement for 35 per cent of all new homes to be genuinely affordable;
- Intervene directly in housebuilding by doubling the current spending plans to £80m and working with council-owned housing companies, housing associations, and communities to pool skills, resources and land to maximise the delivery of genuinely affordable homes;
- Commission an Older People’s Housing Strategy that will establish the needs of our ageing population over the next 30 years;
- Establish a Retrofit Accelerator programme;
- Create a Homelessness Taskforce.
Transport
- Create a transport system for the 21st century, with green and reliable buses, trains, and walking and cycling options to connect the region;
- Guide the emergency provision of public transport given the challenges of the pandemic, such as ensuring all buses have adequate safety measures and key routes are served;
- Review existing transport provisions across the region, developing a long-term strategy for transport investment alongside a plan to deliver on promises made;
- Start a wide-scale transformation of the public transport network, investigating options such as mass transit and bus franchising;
- Implement smart ticketing, with simple tap-in-tap-out payments, and effective advertising of cheapest fares and routes;
- Better control of ticket prices and timetables.
Jobs
- Hold a Jobs Summit in first 100 days in office, creating 23,000 new green jobs, and promoting West of England enterprise nationally and internationally;
- Call for national work programmes to be devolved;
- Use the Green Recovery Fund to invest in programmes that generate local jobs;
- Work with local government, national government, and trade unions to establish an effective living and minimum wage enforcement programme for the West of England;
- Create a West of England Employer Charter outlining standards for good businesses;
- Double the West of England Covid-19 Recovery Fund to £20m to build resilience, promote local business, and tackle inequality;
- Set up a Cooperative Support Agency, to support and coordinate training for cooperative and community run enterprises;
- Use mayoral resources to support childcare providers and invest in childcare infrastructure. Introduce a Culture Covenant, locking in a minimum of 10% of the combined authority Investment Fund revenue to support the tourist and culture sector;
- Support local proposals to help high streets, recognising that each high street is unique;
- Commission a review into digital connectivity in the West of England, identifying areas with poor internet coverage and creating a plan for rapid broadband rollout;
Climate and environment
- Tackle the climate emergency and protect nature by creating a £20m Green Recovery Fund, backing local producers while cutting food miles with an Eat Local campaign, and making the West of England the 海角视频’s Bee Capital;
- The Green Recovery Fund will focus on retrofitting houses, tree planting, improve the ease of walking and cycling, deliver more electric car charging points, improve flood and drought defences and invest in solar farms and community energy;
- Protect the right to roam and access to green space by investing in public footpath upkeep and signage and ensure public transport connects those looking to get out to our countryside;
- Use housing and transport powers to encourage a shift to zero-emission technologies;
- Explore the potential of Clean Air Zones, taking targeted and unified action to improve air quality;
- Use all possible opportunities to discourage blood sports;
- Promote our West of England farmers and make their case to protect British farming from being undercut in future trade deals;
What is the difference between the West of England mayor and Bristol mayor?
The metro, or regional, mayor works together with Bristol’s mayor and the leaders of South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils to create a strategy and make decisions to benefit the region as a whole.
Bristol’s mayor leads Bristol City Council and is responsible for its area, while that role in the other two local authorities is taken by council leaders.
The three councils are still responsible for most public services, such as waste, highways management, schools and leisure facilities, while the metro mayor focuses on wider issues that span the region, such as economic growth and strategic planning.
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How much funding does the combined authority bring to the West of England?
Financial benefits were part of a devolution deal agreed in 2017, bringing £900m of new investment into the region.
Since then more than £1.15bn of new funding has been secured for the Weca region that is attributable to the combined authority.
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