A GIANT new authority representing more than a million people in Hampshire could have the power to create thousands of new jobs and homes across the Solent.

The Daily Echo can today exclusively reveal that talks will take place over the creation of a “Solent City Combined Authority” led by a Boris Johnson-style mayor which would have greater control over how billions of pounds of public funds are spent in Hampshire.

Civic chiefs say if the negotiations were successful it could bring about historic change and could see the introduction of new schemes like Oystercard-style travel cards as well as major transport improvements.

Council leaders say it is vital the talks – which will begin this month – take place so that the Solent region does not miss out on the promises of devolution and wide-ranging new powers promised by the Government.

But it has led to speculation that some councils could completely disappear while creating an extra layer of bureaucracy. Council bosses also cannot agree on the proposed boundary of the new super-authority and how far it should stretch.

Under the proposals the so-called “Solent City” area, ranging from the Waterside in the West to Havant in the east, could form the basis of the new authority.

Initially, discussions will only take place about setting up an official combined authority bringing all the leaders of the region’s councils together into one organisation with a range of extra powers.

‘Metro mayor’ But that could then lead to a “metro mayor” being appointed, with Chancellor George Osborne saying only authorities with elected mayors, crossing council boundaries, will get full devolution.

While an elected mayor would be the leader of the authority, they would have a cabinet made up of the leaders of all of the councils in the authority area, with a majority having to approve any plans before they went ahead.

The authority would have greater powers to spend billions of pounds of public funds currently spent on things like highways, economic development, social care and job skills, while being able to use one-off pots of money on building new homes and major infrastructure projects.

Experts have warned that the proposed new system could eventually lead to local councils such as Southampton being scrapped altogether – something that is vigorously denied by local leaders.

The move to start talks on the issue follows growing pressure – from both the Coalition and Labour – for all cities and counties to form combined authorities, or miss out on the extra powers up for grabs.

This week Chancellor George Osborne announced the creation of a new “metro mayor” for Greater Manchester Authority.

It contains ten councils in the North West of England and now has control of £2billion more of public funds, including £300million for new homes, £500m skill budget and the police budget.

Eventually the new authority could have control over all public spending in Greater Manchester, which currently amounts to £22billion.

Speaking to the Daily Echo about the idea of a “city-region” mayor, Southampton’s Labour leader Cllr Simon Letts said: “It’s possible that South Hampshire may end up with that.

“However, I suspect there will be resistance to the idea of an extra layer of local government, especially in an area as diverse as South Hampshire – where all views need to be reflected.”

Saying he will meet Portsmouth City Council’s Conservative leader, Donna Jones “in the next few weeks”, he added: “I believe it’s better to work together as a combined authority and I have written to the leader of Portsmouth inviting her to discuss that possibility and get her initial thoughts.

“If we can extra powers over things like the capital money spent on transport in our area, then it’s definitely the logical thing to look at doing.”

Sean Woodward, leader of Fareham Borough Council and the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH), said: “The next step could be a combined authority – but that wouldn’t mean that the councils would disappear and be combined into a gigantic single tier authority.

‘Stronger together’ “We would pool resources, which is something that has been done in the North and could happen here.

“We’re stronger together.”

But county council leader Roy Perry believes a new combined authority area should contain the whole of Hampshire and potentially Bournemouth, West Sussex and Surrey, as opposed to just its southern districts.

He said: “Just having South Hampshire would cut New Forest District, Test Valley and Winchester in half, and that, I think, isn’t good.

“Cutting the area down to the PUSH area would be too small.

“However there is a real opportunity now for getting powers, particularly things covered by organisations like the Highways Agency, the Skills Funding Agency and the Environment Agency.

“But if it’s going to happen we need to keep it as simple as possible.”

Royston Smith, Conservative opposition leader at Southampton City Council, said the new authority should be used to merge certain council departments across the Solent, such as taxi licensing, waste or highways, into one team with the same policy.

He said: “We should be working collaboratively with other authorities, but if it this is just an extra tier of government then that is absolutely not what it should be.”

The idea was also welcomed by Stewart Dunn, chief executive of the Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, who said: “The region is an economic powerhouse, and it makes sense to accumulate our resources to make sure power is devolved, provided that it will not just add another layer of bureaucracy.”

‘Gimmick’ But Dr William Sheward, senior lecturer in politics at the University of Winchester, warned the plan “could be seen as a gimmick”.

He said: “I don’t get the sense that the Solent exists as an entity in the minds of most people, similarly to Wessex.

“I can envisage some councils perhaps disappearing into a larger metro authority. I think people will also be mistrustful about creating another layer of politicians.”

Civic leaders will discuss the proposals at a meeting of PUSH on December 2.