'I'm using my experience of homelessness to help others'

COUNCIL LEADER SAYS CHILDHOOD LOW POINT HAS INSPIRED HIM TO GO 'ABOVE AND BEYOND'

- RACHEL ALEXANDER

THE leader of Walsall Council has told about being made homeless as a child after his family home was repossessed.

Councillor Garry Perry recalls the 'ruthlessness' of the system that left him, his four siblings and parents without a home for over 12 months.

The 49-year-old has shared how his experiences have led him into politics, describing himself as a 'conservative with a social conscience'.

Born and raised in Pelsall, he grew up in a working-class household. His father was a lorry driver and his mother a cleaner at a hospital.

In the early 1990s, his mum had a health scare, his dad suffered a stroke, and interest rates were rising sharply during a national financial crisis.

Cllr Perry said: "Very quickly it would seem, we had our house repossessed. I would be about 12 or 13, my brother would be about 15, my sisters younger, aged 10 and below.

"I remember my mom telling us it was going to happen before it did but as a child you don't really understand it. You just see your mom beside herself and distraught. Both parents, who at that time, were ill as well. The day itself is scarred on my mind forever, because you're seeing everything that you've ever known, and that your parents have worked for, gone."

The family had been to the council for support but the authority at the time was 'very different,' and he remembers his family being turned away.

He said: "The council was quite politically led, and it didn't want to know.

"It shows how things have changed, because there are statutory duties and things in place that prevent people being thrown literally onto the streets."