Fifteen councils across the region have been working on a joint bid to take over powers and funding now controlled by Whitehall.

But the Heart of the South West has reached a sticking point over the Government’s insistence that significant devolution will require an elected mayor for the region.

As we reported last week, Plymouth and Exeter refused to go along with a vote for all 15 councils to work exclusively with the Heart of the South West local enterprise partnership.

David Thomas, the leader of Torbay’s Conservatives, said later that they too would support a rival bid with Plymouth and Exeter.

The two councils said they had written to colleagues across the region “to assure them of their ongoing commitment to joint working to improve skills, productivity and infrastructure in the Heart of the South West”.

They said they were fully committed to working with the other 13 councils on a joint productivity plan – but would continue to explore other opportunities.

“We believe that there will be no significant devolution deal for tuhe Heart of the South West given the lack of a consensus on the issue of an elected mayor/leader with responsibility for receiving devolved powers and financial resources from Whitehall,” they said.

“The Government’s position on this has been very clearly outlined by the Secretary of State, Sajid Javid.

“We feel it would be remiss of us not to explore the sub-regional opportunities for further and faster delivery of economic growth with a deal that doesn’t rule out an elected mayor/leader as described above.”

A meeting of the Heart of the South West leaders’ and chief executives’ group on Friday heard that Plymouth and Exeter councils had met with Torbay to discuss the potential to work together on a sub-regional level to drive economic growth further and faster.