The Minister for the West Midlands has been challenged to ensure the region is properly represented in Parliament.

Liam Byrne, the Birmingham MP appointed by Gordon Brown to give the West Midlands a voice at Westminster, was urged to press ahead with plans for a West Midlands committee - after six months of delays.

The demand came from Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell (Con Sutton Coldfield), who claimed Mr Byrne was accountable to no one.

Mr Byrne last night revealed he had pressed Harriet Harman, the Leader of the Commons and the Cabinet Minister responsible for constitutional reform, to speed up creation of a committee.

The Prime Minister announced in July he would create powerful regional select committees in the Commons, with the power to summon ministers.

The committee would allow West Midland MPs to raise concerns about issues such as schools, hospitals and transport with the Government Minister responsible.

It would also allow them to scrutinise the work of the Minister for the West Midlands, who co-ordinates the work of Government quangos spending hundreds of millions of pounds in the region.

But no progress has been made in setting the committees up, and the Government has even indicated it is considering scrapping the idea.

It may instead set up a different type of committee, called a Grand Committee, which has very little authority and cannot summon ministers to answer questions.

In an open letter to the Mr Byrne, Mr Mitchell said: "The fact remains that nearly six months since the appointment of Regional Ministers, we still do not have a structure of accountability for Regional Ministers.

"This is totally unacceptable, as is the establishment of anything less than a full select committee with full powers.

"I hope you will agree with me that this issue needs resolving with some urgency."

Mr Byrne said he agreed that a committee was needed, but added that it was important to obtain widespread agreement about how exactly it should work.

He said: "I have pressed the Leader of the House for rapid action to get Parliamentary oversight of the West Midlands in place as soon as possible.

"This is an historic opportunity to make regional organisations, and the millions of pounds of our taxes they spend, more accountable to West Midlands residents."

He wanted a West Midlands committee in the House of Commons to work in partnership with regional bodies, he said.

The Government is currently finalising plans to replace the West Midlands Regional Assembly, an unelected body which is set to be replaced.

"I want to see the new committees dovetail with whatever replaces the Regional Assembly to oversee Advantage West Midlands," said Mr Byrne.

"There isn't yet complete agreement on this so I'd rather we get it right.

"But my message is simple. We get faster progress when politicians are put under pressure. On that I suspect Andrew and I agree."

Mr Brown's proposals for constitutional reform in Britain, published in July, stated that regional ministers would "represent the Government with regard to central government policy at regional select committee hearings and at parliamentary debates focused specifically on the region". In principle, the House of Commons rather than the Government decides which select committees to create. However the decision on whether to create a committee will be made by the Government. Conservative leader David Cameron has decided against appointing regional representatives and instead has created shadow ministers for big cities.

Mr Mitchell is shadow Minister for Birmingham, and shadow International Development Secretary. Conservative chairman Caroline Spelman (Meriden) is shadow Minister for Coventry while Francis Maude, one of Mr Cameron's close allies, is shadow Minister for Wolverhampton.