Political parties are being urged to wake up to the probability that Birmingham will soon be governed by a directly elected mayor and to begin a Great Debate on the issue, reports Public Affairs Correspondent Paul Dale.

Lord Adonis, the former Schools Minister appointed by David Cameron to tour the country and find out what people think about having major cities run by directly elected mayors, doesn’t mince his words when discussing Birmingham City Council’s performance.

The council’s record on delivering economic development and transportation is poor, the scale of unemployment is a disgrace and too many schools are badly under-performing, he contends. The city “desperately” needs leadership on these pressing issues, he believes.

Think how much better things would be if Birmingham were to be run by a powerful mayor with a direct mandate from the people. A person who would be able to hire cabinet members with real ability regardless of political leanings and sack lazy jobsworths.

A man or woman with the ability and charisma to promote the city nationally and internationally – someone who would become as well known across the country in the future as Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone are in London.

Birmingham will indeed get the chance to elect a mayor, but only if a referendum to be held in May 2012 produces a clear majority in favour. When the Localism Bill becomes law at the end of this year, Birmingham’s Tory city council leader Mike Whitby will be shadow mayor with the powers currently enjoyed by other city mayors in England and the race will be on for political parties to select their candidates to run for mayor in 2013, assuming that the referendum goes in favour.

Lord Adonis is at pains to state that his gloomy assessment of Birmingham’s performance should not be interpreted as an attack on Coun Whitby.

He adds: “I have worked closely with Mike and had a good constructive relationship with him. Nothing I am saying should be taken as being critical of him. It’s the system that needs changing. The issue is how to make stronger city governance able to put the case for the city nationally and internationally to get things done. We need a great debate on this.”

He pays tribute to some of Birmingham’s record over the past 20 years – the city is a better place than it was – but insists that progress has not been fast enough, particularly on the skills and job creation front.

Lord Adonis adds: “There is a pressing reason for why Birmingham needs leadership to bring businesses and jobs here, not least because unemployment stands at 10 per cent and is one of the highest totals in the country.Issues like transport desperately need strong leadership to deliver improvement. Why is it that Birmingham Airport still hasn’t got its runway extension because there isn’t an appropriate funding package in place?

“The city council already has hugely important powers over education, transport, economic development and housing. The big issue is whether it is doing well enough in areas where it already has powers.

“Birmingham has one of the worst performing school systems in the country. There are communities where, frankly, the quality of education is far from good enough. There are too many weak and failing schools. The question has to be asked, if you had stronger, more powerful, city leadership could you get better things done in education than you possibly could through the existing system?”

He points out that a directly elected mayor of Birmingham will be able to appoint cabinet members who are not councillors, opening up the possibility of successful business figures playing key roles in running schools, housing and transport.

This, of course, is the main reason why most local politicians do not want to switch from the existing system because they recognise their grasp on power will be severed.

As Lord Adonis puts it: “There are vested interests, including councillors, who don’t want to see any change to the status quo, but the status quo is not good enough. The mayor of Birmingham should be constantly banging the drum nationally and internationally for industries and government agencies to be located here and create jobs for the city.”

He will be advising the Government on whether city mayors should be given greater powers, particularly in economic development, and is confident that this will happen.

It is also likely the city council’s cycle of elections will be changed from electing one-third of members every year to holding a single election for all 120 members once every four years, dovetailing with the mayoral election.

Lord Adonis is urging the main political parties to take the mayoral issue seriously and expects them to come forward with “very serious candidates” as the months roll by towards the referendum.

As things stand, former Erdington Labour MP Sion Simon is the only mainstream contender to declare his hand, although city council Labour group leader Sir Albert Bore says he will probably seek nomination as his party’s official candidate.

Yardley Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, although opposed on principle to elected mayors, has also said that he may seek his party’s nomination if Birmingham votes yes in the referendum.

At the moment no Conservative in Birmingham has publicly expressed interest in the idea, even though the Prime Minister is an enthusiastic backer of elected mayors and wants to see one running this city.

As to the big-name business and community leaders, the independent candidates favoured by David Cameron, none in Birmingham have put their heads above the parapet as yet.

Lord Adonis says, diplomatically, that there are mixed views on whether Birmingham should have a directly elected mayor. Almost all city councillors are against, but a city-wide consultative ballot held 10 years ago produced a majority in favour of one of two forms of mayor being offered at the time. The result was ignored by the then Labour local government minister,

Will it be different this time?

Lord Adonis thinks so: “It’s really going to happen now. I am sure Birmingham is going to get a mayor because it will become clear to most people that the current system simply isn’t working and isn’t producing the goods for this city.”