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Mayors and combined authorities

West Midlands

Councils in West Midlands working together on things that cross their borders, led by a mayor everyone in the area can vote for.

West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is an Established Mayoral Strategic Authority with the functions and funding associated with that tier.

The mayor

Richard Parker Labour and Co-operative Party

Elected on 2 May 2024.

Source: Democracy Club, Mayor of West Midlands (CC BY 4.0), read 26 October 2026. This is who won the most recent mayoral election; if the post has changed hands since without an election, this page won’t know yet.

Next mayoral election: Democracy Club hasn’t listed it yet.

What the government says about the next election

The Mayor is elected on a 4 year term. The most recent election was in May 2024 with the next election scheduled for 2028. This will be done by Supplementary Vote, as will further elections.

What it decides

The law gives every authority of this kind powers under these headings:

Headings as printed in the government’s Devolution Framework Explainer: Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities (Open Government Licence v3.0), which lists each power under them. Which of them this authority uses, and how, is in its own papers.

Do all combined authorities do the same things?

The specifics of the powers of MSAs vary from place to place but typically include aspects of transport, skills, housing, and local infrastructure investment, and in some cases spatial planning, policing, health and employment support.

Police

As WMCA’s geography aligns with Police and Crime Commissioner boundaries, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill will enable the transfer of Police and Crime Commissioner functions to the Mayor of WMCA, subject to secondary legislation.

Fire and rescue

As WMCA’s geography aligns with the Fire and Rescue Authority boundaries, the Bill will enable WMCA to become the Fire and Rescue Authority for the area, subject to secondary legislation.

What’s different about how it is run

At the time of publication, we do not expect WMCA to have any distinctive governance arrangements.

WMCA will retain some different powers in relation to anti-social behaviour; smoking enforcement; air quality; education; road safety; permit schemes; and roadworks. WMCA also holds the powers of the former Passenger Transport Executive for its area.

Councils in its area

Its constituent councils are Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton.

Every council in its area:

From the ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to Combined Authority lookup (LAD25_CAUTH25_EN_LU) (Open Government Licence v3.0), read 26 October 2026.

Website
wmca.org.uk (from mySociety)
Meetings and decisions
Not yet read.
Budget
Budget, spending and transparency (the link of that name on its home page, 26 October 2026)
The mayor's page
The Mayor (the link of that name on its home page, 26 October 2026)
The mayor on Democracy Club
Richard Parker
Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every authority page has the same sections in the same order. Sources: MHCLG, English devolution: Area factsheets (Open Government Licence v3.0); MHCLG, Devolution Framework Explainers (Open Government Licence v3.0); ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to Combined Authority lookup (LAD25_CAUTH25_EN_LU) (Open Government Licence v3.0); ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to County and Unitary Authority lookup (LAD25_CTYUA25_EW_LU_v2) (Open Government Licence v3.0); Democracy Club, EveryElection (CC BY 4.0); Democracy Club candidates (CC BY 4.0); mySociety, UK Local Authorities, with WhatDoTheyKnow home pages (CC BY 4.0 / CC BY-SA 4.0); Wikidata, official website (P856) (CC0). Parish and town councils are not covered yet. Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.