Metro Mayor Profile: Tim Bowles – West of England

Biography

Tim Bowles has been a councillor for Winterborne in South Gloucestershire since 2011, where he is also president of the Conservative Association. He works as a development manager for exhibition and events company RTH. He has a particular interest in dementia awareness. He has lived in the Bristol region for 30 years, and has been a Governor at a school for fifteen years.

Tim Bowles’ priority areas

• Homes: ease the pressure on green belt development, prioritising urban areas, and using brownfield land first.

• Transport: ensuring that transport infrastructure keeps up with housebuilding, easing traffic congestion in Bristol, opening rail stations, and introducing smart ticketing.

• Working with Government: as the ‘only candidate’ to back the Government’s plan for Brexit, and campaigning to get a fair share of funding for the region.

Read about Tim Bowles’ priorities here.

Analysis

Much of Bowles’ campaign contrasted himself with governance in the region that has been dominated by Labour and Bristol. The (current) deputy chair of the Combined Authority and Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, is popular locally (and nationally) and likely accountable for Labour’s relative success in the West of England vote. Yet his priorities – e.g. on housing, where he wants to see substantial house building, cap rents, and has signed an ethical lettings charter with campaigners, are markedly different to Bowles who wants to lessen pressure on the green belt and build ‘the right homes in the right places’. Whether they can work together or Rees is dominated by the three out of four Conservative members of the Combined Authority remains to be seen.