The Swansea Bay City Deal: Introduction

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On Wednesday 25 January Carmarthenshire County Council agreed to delegate authority to the Leader of the Council to sign the Swansea Bay City Region deal based on a 'Heads of Terms' document presented to the meeting. The city region proposal presents what can only be described as a very exciting vision for the future of the region, which includes Carmarthen, Pembroke, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot counties.

It's fair to say that a while ago the city deal was waning until it was picked up again by Cllr. Rob Stewart, Leader of Swansea City Council and Mark James, Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council. At the moment, these two figures seem to be driving the project forward, supported by the other partner authorities. There is also a 'with Brexit, the city deal is the only game in town' attitude towards the proposal.

The Swansea Bay City Deal focuses on four main sectors for both urban and rural areas across the region;
  • digital infrastructure,
  • the energy sector,
  • smart manufacturing, and 
  • innovation in life science.
My first impression is that the city region team has chosen very strong sectors that have a huge potential for growth. If I was trying to pick industries that will grow in the future, I would choose these. They also feed into some of the strengths of the Swansea Bay area.

The deal is currently being by the UK Government. There were hopes that there would be an announcement of the deal as part of the Chancellor's Spring Budget, but many were left disappointed when the Welsh Secretary declared that

This is Part 1 in a series of posts about the proposed Swansea Bay City Region Deal. Part 2 will consider the eleven projects that will form the deal.

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