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PRIVACY
Economic Development

Birmingham and Black Country better together, claims Miliband

Labour leader urges more co-operation as he pledges return of regional minister.

Labour leader Ed Miliband during his question and answer session and speech at the Priory Rooms in Bull Street, Birmingham

Birmingham and the Black Country have been urged to break with historic boundaries and work together in a radical shake-up of regional development unveiled by the Labour party.

Labour leader Ed Miliband urged the region’s councils and local enterprise partnerships to come together under a combined authority to profit from a major boost in regional funding.

Mr Miliband said a Labour government would bring back the position of Minister for the West Midlands as part of a radical package of measures to devolve power to the regions.

He used a visit to Birmingham to announce that Labour’s general election manifesto would focus on plans for “devolving power from Whitehall to our towns and cities”, to create jobs and “rebuild the middle class”.

This included stripping Whitehall of £20 billion and handing the money to local authorities to spend on transport, housing, training and programmes to get unemployed people into work.

Mr Miliband said councils which meet certain conditions “will receive powers and access to resources from Whitehall the like of which we have not seen in living memory”.

When asked about the cooperation between Birmingham and the Black Country, Mr Miliband told the Post: “We are hoping that they will work together and we want to encourage them to work together.

“Clearly we want to talk to local authorities about exactly the contours of combined authorities but I think they can work together and there is a real opportunity to have greater control over skills, transport and economic development spending. So I really encourage that cooperation.”