Who can be your Metro Mayor?

If George Osborne gets his way, he or she will become the 'metro mayor' of a region containing three cities, not to mention the Black Country.

Potentially they will be the representative of around four million people.

To put that in context, that's a million more than the entire population of Wales.

David Cameron has said he is open to the idea of an alternative. But the signs are all pointing to a West Midlands Combined Authority, where councils work together on transport, skills and regeneration, overseen by a directly elected politician.

They will be the one who oversees the use of greater control over local transport, housing, skills and health care.

But who could do it?

There are names like the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson, who joked his wife would be 'glad to have him out of the house'.

If the combined authority and metro mayor go ahead, it is likely that the PCC's office and the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority would come under its umbrella, along with the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority.

The Birmingham-born independent peer and former business minister Lord Digby Jones is a name that gets mentioned among business circles too, given his experience running the Confederation of British Industry and serving in Gordon Brown's cabinet as the first minister ever to have served without being a member of a governing party.

On the Conservative side a possibility is Les Jones. The former leader of Dudley Council ran for the role of police and crime commissioner in last year's by-election. And he became a last minute replacement as candidate for Dudley North in the General Election, coming in second to Labour. But he is credited with having vastly improved the party's showing after opinion polls had put the Tories in third place behind UKIP.

Sandwell Council's Labour leader Darren Cooper admits he would be interested in such a role - but only if it was something that was put to a referendum first.

Historian, writer and broadcaster Carl Chinn could provide an antidote to the tried, tested and increasingly unpopular party politics.

But he too insists on a referendum.

It is easy to see why. In 2012 cities across the country took part in a referendum on whether or not to have mayors. Birmingham and Coventry said no.

Only Bristol and Doncaster wanted them.

Manchester has since agreed to have a metro mayor after Mr Osborne offered the incentive of powers over health and other spending such as welfare and transport.

It means local control for Greater Manchester of a budget of around £22 billion.

The Chancellor's thinking behind metro mayors and devolution is that cities are the 'engines' of growth.

Give them the control and the power and they'll get things done faster than Whitehall.

Of course, for the West Midlands, there is still the matter of working out precisely which areas are going to come under such a mayor and even whether or not to have the mayor at all.

Then there's the thorny issue of the name. Try as politicians might in the Black Country, Greater Birmingham continues to roll off tongues.

If, and it's all still a big if, the West Midlands elects its own version of Boris Johnson (minus the unruly blonde hair and the comedy value), it is going to need to be someone who can speak for the entire region, without being biased towards one area or another within it.

Councillor Cooper has been leading the Black Country's negotiations with Birmingham, Coventry and others about the creation of a combined authority.

He has been adamant that it must never be called Greater Birmingham.

And he is against the idea of more politicians.

"There's no appetite for another tier of politicians," he says. "The problem with elected mayors is that Birmingham and Coventry were already asked if they wanted them in 2012 and they said no.

"So if the government is insisting we have one, then it must be put to a referendum first.

"We've been getting very mixed messages from the Government. The Chancellor says we'd need a metro mayor. The Prime Minister says he's open to other ideas.

"As councils we can easily demonstrate that we support each other without the need for a mayor.

"We have to get on with the creation of a combined authority. Greater Manchester has taken the lead and we're playing catch up."

Pressed on whether he would consider running for mayor he said: "At this moment in time I am of the firm belief that the chairman of the combined authority is a better way forward.

"But if the public votes for an elected mayor it may be something I'd consider.

"It's very difficult to think about how to be mayor of an area with millions of people and three cities as well as the boroughs of the Black Country and represent everyone."

Professor Chinn's is a name that has been mentioned before in the debate over whether Birmingham should have a mayor.

He says: "It's really important that Birmingham, the Black Country, Coventry, Cannock Chase, South Staffordshire and the rest of the West Midlands work together. We know George Osborne wants a northern powerhouse. We cannot be left out.

"Regions across England have to work together to bring in investment and achieve a common good.

"An elected mayor would need to fight for the region. It would have to be something that people chose.

"I have no political allegiances. I try to serve my region through writing and teaching. If I could serve my region another way and it was what people wanted me to do, I would look at it."

Councillor Jones said he was not 'getting ideas above my station' at this stage.

But he said: "As a concept the metro mayor is a good idea. It needs someone looking at the West Midlands as a whole rather than people saying Solihull will do this and Sandwell will do that. I've been on the transport authority and the police authority so I've seen how working together helps. I'd be interested and I think I could do it but it would be up to my party to choose a candidate."

We are, of course, a very long way away from any parties choosing candidates.

Indeed the question of whether or not to have a metro mayor is one that cannot be addressed until we know whether or not there is something for them to preside over.

The negotiations for the West Midlands Combined Authority continue.

The arguments will rage over the identity of the Black Country, over the prominence of Birmingham at any negotiating table and how big its lion's share of any funding should be.

People will say whether or not they want an elected mayor. But they must first answer whether or not they want the Black Country and Birmingham to work together at all.