Have a mayor or get left behind - Heseltine lays cards on the table over combined authority

Despite David Cameron and the Chancellor suggesting the door was open to other ideas, Tory grandee Lord Heseltine said Mr Osborne would not hand over power without a mayor to span Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley, Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull and any other districts who sign up to the planned West Midlands Combined Authority.

And talks are taking place with Lichfield, Cannock Chase and Wyre Forest district councils about joining the combined authority.

Lord Heseltine, who was commissioned by the government to find ways to stimulate growth across the country, was the guest speaker at the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) annual general meeting.

He warned the West Midlands risked being left behind because councils in Greater Manchester were already working together and had proposals of what to do with the powers they want from government, including control over £6 billion worth of health funding.

Speaking at Birmingham Town Hall he said: "The challenge here is, can you catch up? Manchester's train has left the station."

But he warned that the government would not just hand over powers without someone accountable to the electorate, for fear of being punished at the ballot box if things go wrong that were out of its control.

"For local leaders it is a stumbling block. But the Chancellor won't do a deal that does not involve a directly elected mayor. Time will have been wasted and an opportunity will have been missed. You don't have to do it. You can go on as now. Nobody will change anything you don't want them to."

The former deputy prime minister, who challenged Margaret Thatcher for the leadership of the Conservative party, told the Express & Star it was up to councils to decide what they wanted from a combined authority.

And he dismissed fears that Black Country would be swallowed up and that all the money would go to Birmingham.

"I don't believe that. If you take the Manchester deal I don't think anyone would suggest Salford or Trafford are going to disappear any more than Solihull would disappear. These are historic names people respect. The issue is whether they can combine their strengths with a single, coherent leadership because they can gain so much more than way than they can on their own."

He refused to be drawn on the use of Birmingham in the title for the authority saying: "It's misleading for me to have an opinion. We're saying to people, you come forward with ideas.

"We're trying to get people locally to take the initiatives. And by the way, if we were to come forward with solutions they would be hotly contested."

On the point of an elected mayor he said: "It isn't me making it clear, it's the chancellor, in speech after speech."

But Birmingham and Coventry already rejected elected mayors in 2012 when each city had a referendum.

Lord Heseltine said: "The vast majority of people were not the least bit interested in a referendum. The voting was tiny and largely conducted by politically interested people preserving their own status. There was no offer of a devolution package. So the difference in Manchester and Liverpool is in both those cases councillors could see the prize because it had been agreed."

He has not set a deadline but it is expected the combined authority will be set up by April 2016 and if an elected mayor is created he or she would be in post from 2019.

"You've got all the time in the world," Lord Heseltine said. "But every day Manchester gets ahead. If you want to let them get away, you have all the time in the world."

Asked whether the combined authority would take over the roles of existing councils he said: "You're trying to get me to impose something. This is for you. You should work out how it works for you."

The LEP works to attract investment and boost jobs and businesses across Birmingham, Solihull and neighbouring districts. It is chaired by John Lewis boss Andy Street and would work with the combined authority as would the Black Country's equivalent.

But Mr Street also told the meeting he thinks the combined authority should have the name Birmingham in the title. Council leaders in the Black Country have rejected outright the name Greater Birmingham.

"We have to sort this out but my personal view is Birmingham has to be in the title somewhere because it is internationally recognised," he said. It isn't taking anything away from anywhere else. Munich in Germany isn't spoken about as Greater Bavaria."

Mr Street also said that districts like Lichfield, Cannock Chase and Wyre Forest benefited by investment in Birmingham and were not losing out.

"Areas including parts of Lichfield have unemployment below one per cent because of jobs created in Birmingham."

The LEP has also launched a scheme with the Department for Work and Pensions to provide 100 additional jobs coaches to help unemployed people in Birmingham and Solihull. They will assist with areas like interview technique, CV writing and confidence.