Big four put weight behind Birmingham mayor campaign
Birmingham Chamber of Commerce has thrown its weight decisively behind a campaign for an elected mayor for the city. It is now considering leading in the drive for a directly-appointed city leader.
Bar a couple of abstentions the chamber's council yesterday, it voted unanimously in favour of an elected mayor, following the example of London and Leicester.
A city-wide referendum on whether to have an elected mayor, along with ten other cities including Coventry and Nottingham, will be held on 3 May. If the answer is a 'yes' elections will be held in November.
Spokesman John Lamb said that there was also a belief that the chamber should take a lead in promoting the campaign across the city.
The vote came as four heavyweight politicians – including Lords Heseltine and Adonis – made the case for an elected mayor to an audience of business leaders at the chamber. Along with cities minister Greg Clark and Leicester city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, they repeatedly invoked the example of Birmingham's greatest leader, Joseph Chamberlain, as how a high-profile mayor could affect the fortunes of a city.
They argued that an elected mayor would give Birmingham greater focus in terms of a vision, investment and promoting the city worldwide.
"Under the present system leaders are leaders of the council and elected mayors are the leaders of their cities," said Adonis. "People will know who they are and hold them to account in ways that they cannot with an incognito leader. With an elected mayor awareness of who is in charge in a city doubles.
"Being frank, making quick decisions has not been one of Birmingham's strong points: when I was a minister getting the city to make a decision was like pulling teeth. With an elected mayor you get better decisions, quicker decisions and a vision."
Heseltine argued that an elected mayor would reverse decades of power being eroded towards quangos and financial institutions in London: "Whitehall needs to be put in its place."
He said that an elected mayor was needed to raise the profile of the city internationally to secure freebooting capitalism.
"If you name Birmingham's main rivals – Frankfurt, Marseilles, Hong Kong – in each case I can tell you the name of their leader. Tell me here who knows who leads Manchester or Newcastle?"
