Nuneaton’s voice in Parliament has responded to press reports about Nuneaton and the wider Warwickshire area being subsumed into Greater Birmingham, expressing concern over the prospect of Nuneaton being swallowed up by a super authority run from Birmingham.

The debate over English devolution sparked by the Scottish independence referendum was followed by a summit at Chequers, where a handful of backbench MPs, including the Nuneaton MP, Marcus Jones, were asked for their views on devolution. The Nuneaton MP is absolutely certain that England needs a fairer deal which should include at least only English MPs voting on laws which only affect England.

The local MP has also considered the talk of a Greater Birmingham authority, and after careful consideration has given his view that he does not think it would be in Nuneaton’s best interests to be part of a wider local authority run from Birmingham.

Marcus has written to the Leader of Warwickshire County Council and the Leader of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council to express his concerns, particularly over loss of local accountability.

Commenting, Marcus said: “I have great admiration for what’s going on in Birmingham on the Greater Birmingham Local Enterprise Partnership area but I would be very concerned for us to become part of a Birmingham-centric administration.

“When you look at what’s now happening with growth across the Coventry and Warwickshire area and how quickly unemployment is falling, it begs the question as to whether we should look more to the current City Deal area of Coventry, Warwickshire and Hinckley and Bosworth, which is helping deliver projects like the excellent technology park at MIRA on the A5, which is on track to create over 2,000 high quality jobs.”