The leader of Southampton City Council denied that a Solent Devolution deal was dead last night.

Some media reports claimed the plan to give devolved powers to a new super authority made up of Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight were on the rocks.

This followed a meeting in Westminster of MPs and council leaders to try and find a way forward for the plan following a crucial change of control on the Isle of Wight council.

Last week the council's leader Jonathan Bacon, an independent, who had reversed a council vote against devolution, resigned.

Former deputy leader of the Island authority, Steve Stubbings said the devolution deal had been "effectively withdrawn" by the government.

The Island council is now under Tory control.

The final decision on devolution rests with Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajid Javid, who has yet to make a pronouncement.

Simon Letts, leader of Southampton City Council, told the Echo: "We have not had anything confirmed.

"If the government does decide it does not want to pursue it, that will be the point it falls over. If that does not happen, as far as we are concerned, it is still under consideration which is what it has been since November. 

"We do not know what they are doing and whether they want to pursue devolution in the South or send all the money up North. There is a plea from me for a decision."

The government has given regions of the country the chance to bid for more powers and funding so that more decisions can be taken at a local level over housing and infrastructure.

The deal was expected to bring an extra £900m in government funding but this would have been spread over 30 years.

Critics said the new authority would add an extra layer of bureaucracy and mean an unaccountable body would be making decisions that could not be properly scrutinised. 

Independent councillor Andrew Pope, who left the ruling Labour Party on Southampton City Council, said that he was glad that the devo deal seemed to be dead.

Cllr Pope was a co-founder of the English Futures Party which advocated an English Parliament and had campaigned against regional devolution deals.

He told the Echo that Simon Letts, and Donna Jones, his counterpart at Portsmouth City Council should both resign.

"Their positions are untenable given that they pushed this failed Deal through, and it has collapsed due to their own failures to listen to the concerns of local residents and councillors, their failures to support a referendum, and their deliberate misrepresentations and omissions relating to the Solent Devolution Deal, especially the powers of an elected mayor to increase hundreds of thousands of people's council tax and business rates across the Solent, against residents' wishes."