Express & Star

Forget Greater Birmingham. We're bigger than that.

What's in a name? Well, plenty as it happens, particularly when it comes to the identity of the Black Country.

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Five councils have joined forces to work on matters that affect them all and take advantage of whatever new powers or funding they might be offered by the Government.

And the reason they have done it is because the Heart of England is in danger of becoming a squeezed middle.

The south east is expanding. The northern towns and cities are teaming up.

If the Black Country and Brum are to get any more than crumbs off the table they have to be pulling in the same direction.

At least that's the theory behind the long-running saga of Greater Birmingham.

The problem was that every time some well meaning business leader, councillor or policy wonk uttered it in the hope of drawing attention to the West Midlands, all it did was provoke a debate about identity.

The use of Greater Birmingham in any sort of marketing exercise did not result in national newspapers writing how the West Midlands was on the up but how its various towns were up in arms about something the London elite found to be terribly quaint.

But the Black Country is the Black Country. It won't simply be quietly absorbed.

We ay Brummies.

The name Greater Birmingham was supposed to be about unity and solidarity. In fact it just turned out to be terribly divisive.

The combined authority is, so far at least, nothing to really get hot under the collar about.

No-one is suggesting a new layer of bureaucracy or generous allowances for councillors.

Nor are they planning on having yet more elections that barely anyone will bother turning out to vote in.

But ever since the coalition parties and Labour promised Scotland far greater control over its own affairs, there has been a lot of talk about doing the same in England.

That means whether it's the Tories, Labour or another coalition featuring one or the other after the General Election, something has to exist in the West Midlands to take advantage of anything that's on offer.

And yes, I did just use the words 'advantage' and 'West Midlands' in the same sentence.

But this combined authority is not going to have the £300 million a year budget that the old regional development agencies like Advantage West Midlands had.

Where the RDAs were effective was in dealing with things that transcended mere local authority boundaries. The problem with them was they spent such enormous sums on their own bureaucracy making them prime targets for the bonfire of the quangos.

This combined authority is intended to help us get ahead.

But we're already playing catch up. Greater Manchester has had one for a few years.

Maybe that's why the name Greater Birmingham seemed to roll off so many tongues.

As a region we need to get our swagger back and remember what a big deal we all are, particularly when we're on the same side.

Birmingham is bigger than Manchester. It's the second city.

Now it's time for the West Midlands to show London we should be priority number one.

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