Is the West Midlands a region?  

I’m not a flag-waver for Advantage West Midlands, the Regional Development Agency spending huge sums of taxpayers’ money in an effort to improve the region’s economy. However, I do think that we, the residents of the various local government areas within the West Midlands, should all give some thought to the consequences of the coalition government’s intention to abolish Regional Development Agencies. An immediate aspect of abolition is the accountability and transparency of the public spending that will either be transferred to other bodies in the region or completely withdrawn. Presumably some withdrawal of funding is inevitable given the government’s stated plans for cutting the deficit in the public accounts more quickly than the previous government. But in his emergency budget the Chancellor did say that the existing capital programme will not be cut. So...