Darren Cooper, leader of Sandwell Council, is urging local business people to voice their opinions on proposals to create a West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

The online survey is open until 8 February 2016 and Sandwell Council want to encourage as many local businesses as possible to contribute their opinions. Responses to the survey will help inform the government’s decision over whether to approve the scheme.

The proposed WMCA would cover seven local authority areas – Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton – in order to give the region a strong, shared voice and drive economic prosperity across the whole West Midlands.

The area already has a good track record of collaboration between local authorities as well as the region’s three Local Enterprise Partnerships. The seven councils involved believe that the WMCA will help promote skills development, regeneration and transport links across the region, as well as enable more efficient strategic planning beyond local boundaries.

Councillor Cooper said, “As council leader I believe working together with other authorities is a tremendous opportunity to move powers from Whitehall to the West Midlands. It will allow us to work together on the issues that really matter to the people and the businesses in the West Midlands – growth, jobs, skills, transport and homes.”

You can read about the proposals on the WMCA website  or go straight to the short survey.