Cllr Roger Lawrence

·         First elected in 1983, he represents the St. Peter’s ward and is the Leader of the City of Wolverhampton Council. He served as Leader of the Council from 2002 to 2008. In December 2010 he was made Leader of the Council for a second time up to the present.

·         As Deputy Leader between 1987 and 2002, he chaired the Finance, Planning, Superannuation and Economic Development Committees and was Cabinet Member for Economic Development (2000-2002). He has extensive experience of partnership working in multi-cultural communities: City Challenge, SRB and as a member of Wolverhampton LSP from its foundation.

·         From 1990 to 2004, Roger worked as a Community Development Adviser for Sandwell MBC. He has also worked as a researcher in a local authority, a national voluntary organisation and in academia and as an Urban Policy Adviser.

·         He has an MA in Community Studies from Keele, and an Msc in Policy Studies from Bristol. He has a D Soc Sci from the University of Bristol for a study of Cross Border Collaboration in Central and Eastern Europe: “Collaborative Advantage: a study of regional cross-border collaboration at the edge of the enlarged European Union”.

·         Roger cites local democracy, urban regeneration, regional development, organisational and structural change and social inclusion as his main political interests. He has published on European Structural Funds, the Voluntary Sector, and Citizenship.

·         On a Regional level, Roger has been Chair of the West Midlands Regional Forum (1996-8) and of the West Midlands Local Government Association (2003-4) and (2014-2016), and was appointed to the Board of the Regional Development Agency (AWM) from 2003-9. He has also been a member of the Regional Programme Monitoring Committee for European Structural Funds and of the Black Country Consortium.  He is a member of the Black Country LEP and Chairs the West Midlands ITA.

·         He has been a member of the national LGA’s Executive and is a former member of the Community Well Being Board. He is the current Chair of the West Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership Board and current member of the LGA’s Asylum, Refugee and Migration Task Group (which he has previously chaired). He is a board member of ALDA - the European Association for Local Democracy.

·         He is the Chair of the West Midlands Joint Committee and is working in partnership with other regional leaders on the formation of the West Midlands Combined Authority.