More towns could join combined authority
MAYOR-LED combined authorities will be encouraged to expand, as part of a new ‘levelling up’ White Paper to be published by the Government this year.
It could mean the West Midlands Combined Authority grows to include towns such as Cannock Chase, Redditch or Tamworth as full members.
At the moment, these are non-constituent members, which means residents are not able to vote in mayoral elections.
Other constituent members currently include Shropshire and Warwickshire, while full members of the Combined Authority are Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry and the Black Country authorities.
Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said the Government was looking at devolving powers directly to local councils in areas without large combined authorities, such as counties in the East Midlands including Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
He said: “Without wanting to pre-empt the White Paper in detail, we will be looking at mayoral combined authorities, should their geography change, ie grow? Should we have new ones? Should we give additional powers to some of those mayoral combined authorities?
“We will also be looking at the relationship with individual local authority areas, and whether individual local authority areas, whether it is Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Cornwall or whatever, can assume a greater degree of responsibility for some of the functions that are currently exercised at a national level.”
He said there would be “simplification and rationalisation” making it easier for local and regional bodies to bid for funding, and an end to “overspecification” of how money is spent, giving local leaders more control.
But he said the Government but would not end the bidding process entirely.
Some local leaders object to the current system, in which areas compete for money, but Mr Gove said: “We want to ensure that there are fewer strings attached, where you have strong local leadership.”