The Birmingham and Black Country City Region Board is to be wound up, ending a five-year attempt to introduce a powerful body of strategic local government for the West Midlands.
Championed by council leaders in 2006 as an opportunity to promote the region’s political and economic interests at Westminster and to lobby for Government economic regeneration funding, the board failed to gain any real powers.
Its early days were clouded by a row over the most appropriate name for the board. The cumbersome Birmingham and the Black Country title was chosen, after some council leaders objected to the user-friendly Greater Birmingham.
Last year, Coventry City Council withdrew from the organisation saying its best interests lay elsewhere.
The decision to pull the plug was taken following the emergence of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) covering Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country, which will take on much of the work carried out by the city board.
It was becoming increasingly unclear how a city region board would fit in with the prospect of an elected mayor running Birmingham. The Government also made clear its reluctance to sanction any form of regional government.
Dissolving the board will save the six councils about £240,000 a year, but will also put city region project director Simon Murphy out of a job.
In total, the board enjoyed a £300,000 annual budget to fund its work and pay for staff, with some of the money coming from Advantage West Midlands and the Homes and Communities Agency.
It is chaired by Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby.
Announcing the decision to scrap the board, Birmingham City Council chief executive Stephen Hughes said its role had been overtaken by the LEPs.
Mr Hughes added that the board’s work with the Government on improving workforce skills in the West Midlands, promoting the roll-out of broadband and devising tax incremental funding schemes would continue to be undertaken by councils.
The decision came as a major local government lobbying organisation urged the Government to give city regions real clout.
The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) said city regions such as Birmingham and the Black Country should enjoy the type of powers awarded to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
TCPA chief executive Kate Henderson said: “While the Localism Bill gives the Mayor of London extra powers, the Government will have to lay much greater emphasis on rebalancing England. We need concrete measures to give city regions, such as the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, at least some of the powers enjoyed by Boris Johnson.
