Leadership of Combined AuthoritiesCouncillor Bob Sleigh

The economic context and geography

Content

Creating the West Midlands Combined Authority and negotiating the Devolution Deal

Economic Context

The Three Key Challenges

• 4 million people• £80bn GVA• Covering 20 local authorities • 90% self-containment

More than the sum of our parts

3 LEP GeographyGreater Birmingham & Solihull

Black CountryCoventry & Warwickshire

Mutually inclusive yet distinct

Creating the WMCA and negotiating the Devolution Deal

WMCA

Devolution Deal

The WMCA is

The chance to better plan those things that could be more effectively delivered across

authority boundaries – like transport, regeneration, skills development and

business support

A way for councils (and LEPs) to work together to boost economic growth and improve the wellbeing of people

The vehicle for attracting investment and generating income that we can keep and recycle

back into the West Midlands economy

The vehicle for delivering devolved powers

The Devolution Deal is

The deal/agreement between the Government and WMCA specifying:

• The offers of power, funding and freedom

• In return for the reforms and measures the West Midlands will need to deliver

1. The case for devolution centres on the closure of the productivity and public funding gaps:

– A gap of £16bn between our contribution to national output and the contribution we would make if we performed at the national average level

– A public funding gap of £3.4bn between the taxes we pay in and the amount spent on public services

2. It will allow us to tackle our economic and social challenges and grasp the economic and public sector reform opportunities in the region. These are the two sides of the same coin

The Devolution Deal – the case for devolution

West Midlands Public Sector Reform

The WM PSR programme will centre on well evidenced interventions and service re-design to support ‘troubled individuals’. Within this, three specific areas have been identified in our Devolution submission:

1. Education, Employment & Skills - Addressing the poor skills in the workforce and exclusion of some groups from participation in the labour market.

2. Mental Health - Poor mental health and wellbeing is a significant driver of demand for public services and has an adverse impact on productivity, with clear links to both the offending and the employment and skills agendas. The aim is to establish a Commission which will identify an evidenced-based approach to service re-design.

3. Devolving criminal justice - We want to re-engineer the youth criminal justice system to be much more preventative through evidence-based programmes such as early and non-judicial intervention with offenders to reduce re-offending.

Thank you