To approve Herefordshire Council’s application to become a non-constituent member of the West Midlands Combined Authority.

THAT:

a)    Herefordshire Council applies to become a non-constituent member of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) at an annual cost of £25k;

b)    the leader of the council, or his nominated substitute, be authorised to represent the council at the WMCA board, and exercise the council’s vote as a non-constituent member; and

c)    the general overview and scrutiny committee be invited to consider building into their future work programme an appraisal of further devolution options (to include the potential for the council to become a constituent member of WMCA) and report the outcome of their review to inform any future decision of Cabinet.

To ensure the council is in the best possible position to continue to secure government funding to support the growth aspirations of the county whilst maintaining the flexibility needed to fully explore the implications of greater engagement in a combined authority arrangement.

The council could consider becoming a constituent member of WMCA. This is not currently recommended as there has been insufficient time to fully evaluate the governance, democratic and economic business case for doing so.  However, we may consider this option at some point in the future.

The council could choose not to engage with WMCA. This is not currently recommended given that the government has a clear policy direction of devolution which indicates that engagement with a combined authority arrangement will become essential criteria to enable access to future growth funding. The council continues to explore devolution options with other potential partners but these discussions are insufficiently advanced at this stage to demonstrate how Herefordshire Council can meet the government’s requirements.