Warwickshire County Council Cabinet considers WMCA paper
Approval was given today (Thursday 13 July) for work, including the completion of a governance review and consideration of a draft scheme to explore the opportunity for Warwickshire County Council (WCC), as a two-tier authority, to become a constituent member of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and other options and for a report to be brought back to Cabinet.
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, the Leader of Warwickshire County Council, said: “We are taking this step by step, and the paper is about exploring the potential expansion of the West Midlands Combined Authority to include Warwickshire, which in practice means the County Council and the five District and Borough Councils.
“We think the potentially significant long-term benefits for Warwickshire residents and business warrants consideration. The first step would be to complete a governance review which would provide the evidence that we all need to be able to consider this further. Each step will be reviewed on its own merit, and we will only move to the next step when, and if, we are satisfied it is the right thing to do.
“If Warwickshire County Council were to join the Combined Authority, the five District and Borough Councils would automatically be included in their own rights. There is no link between admission to the WMCA and local government reform, which is a separate process.
"We understand the point at which a Combined Authority area can be expanded must be in line with the mayoral election cycle. Any decision to expand membership must be made ahead of that."
With Mayoral elections for the WMCA scheduled to take place in May 2024, the next opportunity to join would not be until 2028.
Agreement to explore becoming a constituent member means that Warwickshire County Council will now prepare a governance review which considers what an expansion of the WMCA to include Warwickshire would mean in terms of benefit to both the County and the broader region.
The review will be presented back to Cabinet and if at that stage it is agreed to go ahead, a detailed scheme would be the subject of a region-wide public consultation. The scheme and the results of the consultation would be considered by the Council and a decision taken whether to ask Government to consider expansion of the Combined Authority to include Warwickshire.
The full report to Cabinet can be seen on pages 43-58 HERE.