We need a metro-mayor, says new CBI boss
The West Midlands should have an elected metropolitan mayor covering the whole of Birmingham, the Black Country and even Coventry, the CBI’s new regional chairman has told Insider.
Adrian Shooter said that rather than having a Birmingham mayor as the government proposes, there should be one covering the entire conurbation.
"Although it's not what the government is offering, from the business viewpoint it'd be far more effective to have an elected metropolitan mayor – that would lead to a far more joined-up city region," said Shooter, also the chairman of Chiltern Railways.
"The plans are to have an elected police commissioner whose brief would be far wider than Birmingham, while bodies like [regional transport body] Centro cover the whole of the West Midlands. What's their relationship going to be with the mayor of Birmingham?"
The comments came in the light of yesterday’s announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on 'unleashing the powers' of core cities such as Birmingham, giving them more autonomy in their budgets and setting priorities.
While Shooter thought this was good news for Birmingham, he believed it needed be extended to areas such as the Black Country and Coventry.
Shooter, who yesterday chaired his first West Midlands Council meeting at BMW’s engine plant at Hams Hall, said that he would have two main priorities during his term: promoting manufacturing as a wealth creator and encouraging the CBI’s influence on the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).
"This country used to export manufactured goods across the world, not just the colonies," he added.
"But we've declined and declined, and we’re at a very low level in many markets. What we export to Brazil, Russia, India and China combined is lower than what we sell to Ireland. That's not acceptable and it has to change: we have to encourage firms that do not export and find out what it is they need.
"We also need to get more closely involved in the LEPs: the government is increasingly seeing them as the route by which businesses can influence things: for example from 2015 a lot of public transport priorities will be decided by LEPs, on whether to spend it on more bus lanes, rail or motorway lanes. The CBI needs to be feeding ideas through the LEPs as to what its members need."
