Dear John,

This week Labour called on the Prime Minister to change one of his most controversial proposals he’s looking to introduce to the planning system. 
 
Our planning system urgently needs changing but the Government's proposed reforms do nothing to allow developers or councils to build more affordable homes or to address the worsening housing crisis. 
 
It is these types of houses which Birmingham urgently needs. Over the last ten years, services that would prevent families falling into homelessness have been stripped away by the Conservative’s cuts. Now, the council’s housing waiting list has surpassed 18,000 and 3,500 people are in temporary accommodation. However, the council's housing stock has reduced by more than half due to Tory policy, from 120,000 to 60,000. How can the housing crisis be solved if we aren’t fundamentally bringing in policy that encourages more homes to be built? 
 
The Government’s proposed reforms are simply another way of making their friends and donors richer. It does nothing to address the crisis and will mean local communities are entirely bypassed and their voices discarded by the planning system. 

Last week Birmingham was placed into enhanced measures. This was due to the rising Covid rates and low vaccine uptake across many parts of the city. With figures still rising, the number of cases increased by 287 cases compared with last week. Our constituency follows this trend, with the case rate in Edgbaston Ward becoming particularly high, reaching 263 per 100,000. 
 
With the number of cases rising, it is so important that you book your Covid vaccine as soon as possible. Moving into enhanced measures, means that the City Council has been able to work with key partners to organise a range of locations for walk-ins only. This weekend, you can visit one of the venues and times, in the above photo, to get your jab without an appointment for residents over 18. 

I recently wrote to the 40 providers that operate over 280 exempt properties across our constituency of Edgbaston. These houses are often situated in residential areas and are intended to support to some of our most vulnerable members of the community. 
 
However, standards of the support provided varies wildly and where help is not adequate, it is attracting high levels of anti-social behaviour and crime which their neighbours have to live alongside. With this in mind, I have called on all operators to sign up to the Birmingham Quality Standard or risk being closed. 
 
This week, I visited a number of properties in Quinton to carry out spot checks from a range of different providers. This was very beneficial and will feed into the work I am doing with the Council, the Police and resident groups. While visiting, I was able to speak to residents to make sure they had the proper support needed and check that the quality of housing was at a decent standard.  
 
I will be continuing to personally undertake visits of this type, to ensure our community remains a great place to live and work.  
 
If there is an exempt property that is causing issues in your local area, please contact me at [email protected] 

Next Thursday a by-election will be taking place in Batley and Spen. Our Labour candidate, Kim Leadbeater, is a compassionate campaigner, sister of Jo Cox and the only candidate that is from the local area.  
 
I will be leading a phonebank on Thursday to support Kim and help elect a local candidate we deserve. Register below to join me on Thursday and help get out the vote.