After months of being behind the curve on the growing trend towards setting up combined authorities (CA), Birmingham and its fellow councils in the Black Country earlier this month jumped aboard the train, following the North West, the North East, and South and West Yorkshire.

Indeed the Midlands councils claim ambitiously that the new organisation will be up and running by 1 January 2016, a record time considering legislation needs to be placed before Parliament and there is the small matter of a general election in between.