Roberta Blackman-Woods

Roberta Blackman-Woods was the Member of Parliament for the City of Durham between 2005 and 2019.

Roberta was Shadow Minister for Planning and Local Government, having previously been a Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning, International Development, and for Business Innovation and Skills.

She was also heavily involved in the Lyons Commission setting out Labour’s Housing and Planning policies for the 2015 manifesto and has recently launched a Planning Commission to develop a new planning policy for Labour for the next election.

Before entering Parliament, Roberta  was an academic having been Dean of Social Sciences and Labour studies at Ruskin College, Oxford; and as Dean and Professor of Social Policy at the University of Northumbria. She was also a councillor in Newcastle and Oxford.