Hundreds of Midland councillors could face the axe under a new Whitehall drive to reform local government.

Ministers are considering scrapping district councils to create unitary authorities across the region.

About 800 councillors serve on the 24 district councils in the West Midlands, although many of these are also members of county councils.

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It follows the appointment of Sir Michael Lyons, former chief executive of Birmingham City Council, to lead a Government inquiry into reform of local government.

Sir Michael had originally been asked to look at the funding of councils, but Ministers recently extended his remit to include the functions of local government and their accountability to the public.

Ministers are concerned that two-tier authorities, with district and county councils serving the same area, leave residents uncertain which council is responsible for which service.

But moving to a single tier would be controversial. Many of the councils axed would be Conservative-led, as they tend to be in rural areas, leaving the Government open to claims it was motivated by party politics.

It would also foster suspicions that Ministers were attempting to revive plans for regional government in England.

Proposals to create eight elected regional assemblies in England, working alongside the London assembly, were drawn up by Ministers in

2002.

But the policy, fiercely opposed by opposition MPs, was shelved when voters in the North- east roundly rejected an assembly in a referendum last year.

Moves to create regional emergency services have also led to claims the Government may be trying to revive plans for regional government.

The West Midlands is to have overarching fire and ambulance services, and police are considering whether to create a "strategic" regional constabulary.

It has emerged that David Miliband, the Minister for Communities and Local Government, is proposing an end to the two-tier structure of district and county councils.

In a memo to John Prescott,

the Deputy Prime Minister, he argued that the existing set-up is inefficient, wasteful and confusing.

Mr Miliband said in the memo: "We need to make sure that any changes are considered together with those of the police, health and other structural reorganisations that are currently being proposed."

A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister last night said: "Ministers have not made a decision about whether or not to go for reorganisation and the future of the two-tier structure."

Peter Luff MP (Con Mid Worcestershire) said: "I have long been a supporter of a single-tier structure for local government, as having two different councils is confusing.

"But I am suspicious about what the Government is planning, because what we don't want is a new layer of bureaucracy in the shape of a regional government."

There are 38 local authorities in the West Midlands region - seven metropolitan, four county, three unitary and 24 district councils.