Sandwell Council pulls out of combined authority fund
Sandwell Council has pulled out of a West Midlands-wide investment fund after its leader said he feared the authority would be ‘putting money down the drain’.
The seven councils that make up the West Midlands Combined Authority have been asked to put up to £10 million each into a pot of cash to fund housing and other developments across the region.
But in a snub to the authority, Sandwell Council has said it will not take part.
The Collective Investment Fund hoped to raise £70 million but Sandwell's decision not to take part will come as a blow to the combined authority.
Council leader Steve Eling said he did not feel committing to the fund was the best use of taxpayers' money.
The authority has had to save more than £100 million over the past few years due to budget cuts from the Government
Councillor Eling said: "To be perfectly honest, I wasn't satisfied with the governance arrangements for it.
"We are quite strict on requiring proper appraisal of investment on where we allocate money.
"It is almost like we are passing £10 million off to someone else and never seeing anything of it again.
"I'm not prepared to do business on that sort of basis. If other people want to then they have got to justify it to their council taxpayers.
"I just thought we were throwing money down the drain."
Other councils have already moved to ensure they are not hit by knock-on effects of Sandwell Council's decision.
Dudley Council has said it will not pay more than £10 million to make up for the loss of Sandwell, with the total in the pot expected to drop to £60 million.
Councillor Eling admitted he had reservations about the West Midlands Combined Authority, led by new West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, which will oversee transport and housing projects.
He said: "The combined authority has still got to prove itself.
"It has the opportunity to deliver significant benefits to jobs and the economy for the West Midlands area. That's what it needs to focus on.
"A lot of people are still sceptical about it. It's time for it to prove itself and I hope that it will.
"You can put a boat load of money into something and the poorest people get no money at all.
"If the combined authority is going to work we have got to see people from areas of unemployment getting into work."
