Two quangos in the West Midlands are set to be abolished, with the loss of 270 West Midland jobs.

Advantage West Midlands, which employs 200 staff, and the West Midlands Leaders Board, with 70, are set to go over the summer following yesterday’s emergency budget.

Both organisations were set up under Labour with powers to work on planning, housing and employment.

Chancellor George Osborne revealed the scrapping of AWM and eight other regional development agencies in his written budget report.

AWM, based at Birmingham Science Park, spends £300m a year and provides grants to businesses and schemes to get people into work.

The West Midlands Leaders Board, a talking shop of council leaders to scrutinise the work of AWM, was already stripped of its £2m-a- year funding and its powers last week.

The Board will exist until at least September.

A white paper will this summer reveal the details of how AWM will be disbanded.

The Leaders Board had lost its statutory function after the Tories and Lib Dems abolished the Regional Spatial Strategy, a scheme that plans for the region’s housing needs until 2026.

The forum of 33 council leaders met at its offices in Birmingham yesterday and voted to scrap itself.

Councils today spoke of the need to continue to have some kind of joint forum to apply for European Union funding.

Tory councillor Les Jones, deputy leader of Dudley Council, said: “There are still some issues we need to deal with. However it was not fair to the staff to continue with such uncertainty. At least they now know where they stand.”

Labour’s Councillor Steve Eling, deputy leader of Sandwell Council, said: “We will now need to work quickly to set up something by September.”