Birmingham City Council's budget is £3.8bn and West Midlands CA's revenue budget is £346m. I wouldn't focus on size. I think the key things that need to be balanced are:
Making sure that strategic economic decisions are made at a functional economic area level
Making sure that councils are of a size where you don't have too many councillor…
Birmingham City Council's budget is £3.8bn and West Midlands CA's revenue budget is £346m. I wouldn't focus on size. I think the key things that need to be balanced are:
Making sure that strategic economic decisions are made at a functional economic area level
Making sure that councils are of a size where you don't have too many councillors and that each one covers an area/population small enough that the workload is manageable and they are accessible.
Making sure that strategic geographies for police/fire/health match onto LA geographies.
Combined authorities do help make the square peg a little rounder although there will always be tradeoffs
Birmingham City Council's budget is £3.8bn and West Midlands CA's revenue budget is £346m. I wouldn't focus on size. I think the key things that need to be balanced are:
Making sure that strategic economic decisions are made at a functional economic area level
Making sure that councils are of a size where you don't have too many councillors and that each one covers an area/population small enough that the workload is manageable and they are accessible.
Making sure that strategic geographies for police/fire/health match onto LA geographies.
Combined authorities do help make the square peg a little rounder although there will always be tradeoffs