The new chairman of the County Councils Network (CCN) has urged the coalition to give counties the same freedoms cities now enjoy to shape their local economies.

Addressing the CCN's annual general meeting on Friday, Cllr David Hodge, leader of Surrey CC said: ‘The government should trust local government to deliver the right deals and create the right growth opportunities for local communities in order to grow the whole of the UK economy.'

Cllr Hodge later told The MJ ' the Government seems to have got the idea that the only game in town is cities'.  He said he would work hard lobbying over the next year to make ministers see counties as part of the big economic picture. 

Cllr Hodge said as chairman he would seek to convey positive ideas, solutions and innovation to the Coalition to demonstrate counties were seeking to take responsibility for driving change and transforming public services for residents.

But Cllr Hodge said he was angered, on behalf of the county residents, whenever deputy prime minister Nick Clegg trumpeted the success of City Deals or the youth development programme.

‘I think this is a really unfortunate step, because for 23 million people, 46% of the population, we have a responsibility, alongside our partners in the districts, and boroughs and unitaries.'

‘Why aren't they having the same opportunities?  What is to say that somebody who lives  Birmingham, Manchester or London, should have better opportunities than somebody who lives in Lincolnshire, Durham, Northumberland, Cornwall, Wiltshire or Surrey,' added Cllr Hodge.

‘There is no logical reason that we should be discriminated against.

‘We must now go to government and ask for our deal, a County Deal that will see us driving economic growth across the whole spectrum of the United Kingdom,' Cllr Hodge added.

Cllr Nick Rushton, leader of Leicestershire CC, told The MJ that Cllr Hodge should use his time as chairman to push the interests of counties with a greater strategic emphasis than previously.

According to Cllr Rushton, counties have been seriously disadvantaged by the sheer volume of district authorities pressing their case ‘like wasps around the hive' and the superior organisation of the core cities group.

‘CCN needs to punch a lot harder than it has in the past,' Cllr Rushton said.