It was such a simple idea. Groups of like-minded, neighbouring local authorities in a region would be encouraged to set up new regional super authorities which would focus effort and resources on promoting economic development, growth and transport.

The new joint authority would be known as a combined authority (CA) and could be expected to enjoy the support and buy-in from all member authorities since setting up the CA was supposed to be driven by the ‘grassroots' and would not be imposed on the region by central government.