The West Midlands Super Authority

This web page tries to bring together much of what has been said about the West Midlands Super Authority.

Why are people even talking about a West Midlands Super Authority?

Many of the world's large, advanced democracies have a powerful layer of regional government which operates below the national government. Canada has its provinces, the US has its states and Germany has its Lander.

The United Kingdom has a hotch-potch approach to devolution. The Scots have been given a lot of power to run their own affairs and will receive more powers still. The Welsh have been given extra powers too. There is confusion in Northern Ireland with parties who struggle to make effective use of the powers they have been given. [The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is an honourable exception to this general rule].

There is nothing equivalent in England.

In the past lots of people, including the Liberal Democrats, have talked about regional government in England. In 2004 there was a referendum in the North East of England on whether or not to set up a system of regional government there - only 22% voted in favour. There has been a lot less talk about regional government in England since then.

More recently there have been proposals to create powerful "City Regions". The Greater Manchester area has led the way and in 2017 there is expected to be an election for a "Mayor of Greater Manchester" - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Greater_Manchester. The Mayor is expected to run transport and police and have a major say on planning and health services.

These city regions are being backed by one of the country's top tories - George Osborne. He has invited other metropolitan areas to bid for an elected mayor - see http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/14/george-osborne-invites-cities-to-follow-manchester-route-to-devolution .

What is the West Midlands Bid?

In the West Midlands the Labour leaders of the cities [and the conservative leader of Solihul] have got together to put in a bid to George Osborne for a super-authority.

Back in July they issued a "launch" statement - it can be read here http://www.westmidlandscombinedauthority.org.uk/assets/docs/WestMidlandsCombinedAuthorityLaunchStatement6JULY2015.pdf . The document says something about the problems facing areas like Birmingham and Dudley, says very little about how they could be addressed. The document says nothing at all about giving the people of the West Midlands a greater say in running their area and whilst it asks the people of Warwickshire to join it says nothing to persuade them to do so.

People living in Rugby or Warwickshire more generally have not been directly consulted about whether or not they want to sign up for this scheme.

What about Coventry?

Coventry and Warwickshire have been working together on a government scheme called the city challenge and have a joint local economic partnership. Mental health services (and in Rugby acute hospital services) are shared between Coventry and Warwickshire.

The Labour leader of Coventry City Council has thrown in her lot with the leaders of Birmingham and the other metropolitan authorities. She has also criticised Warwickshire County Council for not joining in - see http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/warwickshire-county-council-accused-holding-9674145.

Our Liberal Democrat colleagues in Coventry say that Coventry City Council has not properly consulted the city's residents about the West Midlands Super Authority and that there is a lot of opposition to the proposal - see http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/petition-against-coventry-joining-birmingham-9305951 .

What has Warwickshire County Council decided?

In Warwickshire the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Tory county councillors joined forces to vote down Labour's proposals to join the West Midlands super authority on 3 September 2015.

The Liberal Democrats made it clear before the county council meeting that there seemed little in the proposal for Warwickshire residents - see http://warkslibdems.mycouncillor.org.uk/2015/08/31/warwickshire-lib-dems-reject-take-it-or-leave-it-offer-from-west-midlands-mets/#page-content .

The following press release was released by the Liberal Democrat group after the meeting in shire hall http://warkslibdems.mycouncillor.org.uk/2015/08/31/warwickshire-lib-dems-reject-take-it-or-leave-it-offer-from-west-midlands-mets/#page-content .

What does Rugby Borough Council believe?

Rugby Borough Council has already debated the super authority scheme once - see http://rugbylibdems.org.uk/en/article/2015/1097568/west-midlands-combined-authority-a-potential-threat-to-our-green-fields-warns-sandison .

Rugby Borough Council will take a formal decision on whether or not to join the Super Authority on 8 October. It is widely expected that the "invitation" to join will be rejected.

Is a West Midlands Super Authority right for Rugby?

The problems facing the metropolitan areas of the West Midlands are different from those facing Rugby. On the narrow definition of unemployment (that is unemployed and claiming job seekers allowance) there are only 560 people who are unemployed in Rugby (just 1% of Rugby's workforce) and yet in Birmingham there are 27,228. Birmingham is much bigger place but its unemployment rate at 4% is four times as bad as Rugby's.

They might be after our land. A West Midlands Super Authority Mayor might welcome the prospect of being able to zone Rugby's green fields for housing whilst keeping land for job opportunities, hospitals and leisure use in the cities.

Our voice might be lost in a West Midlands Super Authority. It is hard enough to get local hospital trust to pay any attention to Rugby's needs - imagine what the position would be like if we had to make our voices heard over the millions of people living in the greater Birmingham area.

We don't just look west, we look north and south as well. Birmingham is undoubtedly at the centre of the West Midlands metropolitan area but people in Rugby look beyond the West Midlands. Many travel north to Leicestershire for clothes and household goods shopping or travel south to London for employment. Rugby is on the easternmost edge of the government's West Midlands region and may well be overlooked by a West Midlands mayor. (Lots of people living in London's outer boroughs thought there were neglected by Ken Livingstone.)

What next?

We expect that local leaders in Warwickshire will continue to make the case that Coventry should consider its current partners in health, enterprise development and city challenge rather than run off with Birmingham.

We expect local residents to be fully consulted before Rugby is committed to joining up with any super-authority.