I was delighted to be invited to attend the official opening of the Accord LoCal Homes factory and welcome my colleague the Rt. Honourable Kit Malthouse MP, Minister of State at the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government to my Aldridge-Brownhills constituency.

It is fantastic to see LoCal homes, with its strong, enduring and growing initiative of national significance, which started locally in our Borough developing and continuing in the future at the new Aldridge site.

Accord is generating an increasing number of employment opportunities as well as delivering vital training and new skills as part of its work.

Importantly, Accord is committed to delivering more new, affordable homes that meet the needs of local communities; homes which are energy efficient, which are well designed and which can help address the need for greater employment in our local area and the wider region. LoCaL Homes can provide the solution by working in partnership with other housing associations, local authorities, landowners and investors.

Following on from the initial success at their existing site of producing 250 homes per year their new scaled up facility will enable the delivery of 1,000 quality new homes each year. It was a pleasure to be able to join the Housing Minister and representatives of Accord Housing at the opening of their new factory and see first-hand an initiative that will build the new quality affordable homes for local people and for people right across the United Kingdom, and to view a finished home on site.