West Midlands NO! Campaign

When the City Region was established the taxpayer was told it was a benign organisation, a simple collaboration between local auhorities.

West Midlands NO! pointed out that the architects of the City Region harboured ambitions for tax raising powers but we were told that this wasn’t the case.  We said that it would take decision making out of the hands of our elected local authorities and handed over to this unelected quango but we were told this wasn’t the case.

We were lied to.

The British government’s latest policies for the balkanisation and abolition of England revolve around city regions and in November they announced proposals to strengthen the powers of city regions by putting them on a statutory footing, turning city regions into legal entities able to apply for funding and enter into legal contracts in their own right instead of the local authorities doing so.  In short, it will take the city regions out of the control of the local authorities and promote the quangocrats working for the city regions to a status at least as important as councillors but without the accountability to the electorate.

How did your MP vote in Parliament on this change?  They didn’t because they couldn’t - it was wrapped up into the Pre-Budget Report where it would be lost amongst the recession and multi-billion pound bailouts of banks.  Talk about burying bad news.

Last month, Mike Whitby, the Leader of Birmingham City Council and unelected leader of the City Region quango, wrote to James Purnell MP who has responsibility for the unelected Regional Development Agencies, Regional Assemblies and City Regions, asking for permission to set up a Multi-Area Agreement (MAA).  The MAA is the vehicle for giving the city region a statutory footing, to remove it from the control of our elected councillors, to allow it to enter into contracts and run up bills on behalf of the taxpayer and to take statutory powers from the British government that will allow it to make legally binding policy on housing, transport and others which our local authorities must abide by.

The city region is funded not on a pro-rata basis but on each authority paying equal shares so the relatively tiny authorities of Telford and Solihull pay the same amount as Birmingham which accounts for about half the population of the city region area yet Birmingham sees most of the “benefit” of the city region’s activities as the lead authority and dominant partner.  This Birmingham-centricity is a mirror of what happens with the rest of the unelected quangocracy in the West Midlands - the Regional Assembly, Advantage West Midlands, Government Office of the West Midlands, etc.

We have said this right from the beginning - all of these regional quangos and in particular the city region - exist for the benefit of Birmingham and treat the rest of us as a suburb of Greater Birmingham.  We pay a disproportionately high amount of the cost and receive little in return.  The city region, along witht he other regional quangos, seeks to take yet more powers and responsibilities away from our democratically elected and accountable local councils.  This does nothing to improve democracy or accountability and to call it “devolution” is an insult.  The councillors that are supporting and encouraging this diabolical transfer of power are failing themselves and the people they were elected to represent.