Greater Birmingham?

With the prospects of the much vaunted ' City Region' having new life breathed into it by Sir Albert Bore Leader of Birmingham City Council, shouldn't Wolverhampton and the Black Country be doing more to take the electorate along with them?

The Web site RJF are now taking this thought forward.

"The prospect of a powerful city region level of government administering economic development, transport, skills and housing across the West Midlands has been raised by Birmingham city council leader Sir Albert Bore.

Sir Albert used his annual budget speech to set out his vision of a “new model for city government”, with a clear indication that he hopes a post-2015 Labour government will move quickly on the decentralisation agenda.

He said: “At the city region level we would work together with our neighbours and invest a five-year devolved single funding pot of several billion pounds in transport, skills, housing and economic development.

“Infrastructure projects would be brought forward quickly and prioritised according to local needs. We would work with businesses to identify those needs and to leverage further investment.”

There is little indication at the moment that the coalition government will embrace city regions with single pot funding, even though the idea was raised in Lord Heseltine’s ‘No Stone Unturned’ report, which called for £60 billion to be transferred from Whitehall to the regions.

The idea of forming a city region level of strategic governance for the West Midlands has in the past brought objections from the Black Country councils, who worry about the motives of ‘all powerful’ Birmingham. But Sir Albert has invested time in attempting to persuade the likes of Sandwell, Walsall, Dudley and Wolverhampton to climb on board."

MY initial thoughts are these - Whist I agree that there will be a requirement for new local government measures, I am concerned that voters have a real mandate to ensure that actions taken on their behalf are easily accountable and traceable. I wrote only a few weeks ago that I thought the myriad of boards and voluntary arrangements were akin to putting together the old West Midlands County Council. The difference then was that voters knew who were in charge and could support or get rid of them at election time- Now there is so much confusions that visibility is missing and that democratic accountability is weakened. Much more debate on these new arrangements are required!