CARDIFF AND THE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

As I didn't realise I was being filmed during the recent evening organised by the Cardiff Civic Society in conjunction with the Institute of Welsh Affairs, to consider the Local Development Plan (LDP) for Cardiff, this is slightly embarrassing!

As some of you may know, Cardiff Civic Society has been researching, collecting data, making responses about the development of the city and most specifically its Local Development Plan for nearly five years. This process comes to a conclusion as the City Council Deposits its LDP for the Welsh Government to consider and this meeting was one of the last opportunities to express an opinion on the document and the way forward.

Anyway, here is my short contribution to the debate (and yes, no powerpoint slides!).

There are also contributions available from Mark Barry, Rhodri Morgan, Kevin Morgan and John Punter.


 

A TALE OF TWO BRIDGES? CREATING A SEVERNSIDE ECONOMIC REGION

Last month, I left the University of Wales after five years to take up a new chair in entrepreneurship and strategy at Bristol Business School.

It will be a fascinating challenge but not one that means that I will be leaving the world of business and enterprise in Wales.

I will remain as a business columnist for the Western Mail and its sister paper in North Wales, the Daily Post.

The Wales Fast Growth 50 – which is in its fifteenth year – goes from strength to strength and we have a full house for the award ceremony in October. I am also continuing to work closely with the Welsh Government to complete the second part of the access to finance review by the end of the year.

More importantly, of course, I will still be living in Wales and spending my income in the restaurants and pubs of Cardiff!

In fact, having been employed within the Welsh university sector since 1996 when I returned from Ireland to take up my first chair at the University of Glamorgan, a number of friends in the academic and business world have said that taking a post outside of Wales would actually be good for me and my perspective on the Welsh economy.

More importantly, the welcome I have had from new colleagues in Bristol has been second to none and I look forward to working with them closely to develop the potential of the business school in research, teaching and links with local business. However, the one challenge that I am more than willing to take on is that of examining how the two economies of South East Wales and the West of England can work more closely together as a coherent economic region in the future.

Whilst some would say (and excuse the pun) that trying to get these two regions to work together is a bridge too far, that has not been the case elsewhere in Europe.

Take the new economic area that has been formed between Malmo in Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark following the construction of the five mile long Øresund bridge. This is now seen as being as a model for other transnational co-operation with new cross-border entities being formed to serve the entire region.

For example, local, regional and national authorities from both countries have cooperated in a regional policy forum called the Øresund Committee for the last twenty years whilst a consortium of twelve universities has been established which has opened up all their facilities to students, teachers and researchers from both sides of the bridge. In fact, the region markets itself as being focused on education and research and therefore being a hub for high-technology companies in areas such as pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, food, environment, logistics and design.

The Scandinavians are far more enlightened than other parts of Europe when it come to pragmatic collaboration, but could it be possible for South Wales and the West of England to put aside historical differences and work more closely to create a larger economic region that could be a real driver for both sides of the Severn over the next decade?

The way that politicians and policymakers on both sides of the bridge lobbied as one group for the electrification of the Great Western line is a perfect example of working together for a common cause.

More importantly, there are similar strengths industrially in both regions that, through co-operation, could create world-class clusters in areas such as creative industries, aerospace and life sciences. And there have already been positive steps in getting academia to work more closely together, with the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter announcing a formal collaboration to bringing together a high concentration of research expertise and capability in the South West of England and Wales.

Yes, there would be concerns that the more prosperous Bristol would overshadow Cardiff and Newport, but the same debate has been true in recent years over the relationship between the South Wales Valleys and the capital city. In fact, it would show a far more confident and politically mature approach if Wales could examine how it can co-operate with other parts of the UK fourteen years after devolution.

So is there a case that can be made for a Severnside economic region of 2.5 million residents that can become a major powerhouse in the UK economy, especially at a time when the UK Government is looking to support economic divergence away from the economy of London and South East England?

Certainly, it is something that will be worth exploring during the next few months in the hope that the sum of the parts could be even greater than the whole and benefit the two regions on both sides of the Severn.

AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY FOR CARDIFF

I rather like Russell Goodway.

There, I’ve finally said it despite not always seeing eye to eye with the Labour councillor for Ely and, of course, having very different political views to his.

Indeed, as I have myself sometimes been described by some as the human equivalent of marmite, I can probably empathise with the perception that some people have of Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for finance, business and local government.

And whilst I am not always in agreement with what he has done in the past, there wasn’t much to argue with what he said as he stood in front of the capital city’s business community last Friday morning to launch a consultation to help develop a long-term economic development strategy for Cardiff.

Although businesspeople I have spoken to since suggested that more detail on the day would have been useful, Mr Goodway did finally admit that the Council couldn’t do this all on their own and that they need the private sector to step up to the plate with their ideas and support. One can only hope that such sentiment is realised and that businesses become far more involved in the future development of the city.

For anyone interested in the future of Cardiff, the Green Paper “Rebuilding Momentum” forms the core of the consultation process and is a good starting point. It identifies some of the real opportunities facing the capital city in the immediate future.

Cardiff is already the closest European capital city to London and the electrification of the Great Western mainline will bring the ‘big smoke’ even closer.

It is also estimated that the city’s growth will be higher than any other UK ‘core city’ over the next twenty years and as one of ‘Europe’s best places to live and work’ with superb cultural and sporting facilities, will be attractive to potential investors and their employees in the future.

However, there are also significant weaknesses.

For example, the city has been starved of regeneration funds since devolution, with the focus being on weaker areas in West Wales and the Valleys. And despite having an international airport on its doorstep, the connectivity to this vital travel hub is relatively poor compared to other similar cities such as Newcastle, with very few flights to business destinations.

Given this, it is proposed that in order to exploit existing opportunities and address current and future challenges, Cardiff will require a new and sophisticated approach that combines continued development of infrastructure and physical regeneration with strategies and initiatives to create more and better quality jobs.

Not many could argue with that conclusion but there is one criticism, hopefully a constructive one, which I would make regarding the consultation document.

I appreciate and understand the focus on bringing greater inward investment into the city, especially given the attractions of the new enterprise zone and the excellent work already being done by the financial and professional services sector panel in ensuring that companies consider the city as a base for their operations.

However, it is a major disappointment the word ‘entrepreneurship’ was missing from the document, especially as the analysis admits that Cardiff has lower rates of business start-up rates than competitor cities. It also points out that the number of businesses in the city is also comparatively low despite the level of employment growth over the last ten years.

Whilst inward investment is important to any economy, the development of new businesses within fast growing sectors is also critical to future growth. As we have seen from cities across the World such as New York, Hong Kong and San Francisco, their dynamism is a direct result of the entrepreneurial efforts of innovative businesses.

I believe, given the fact that it has a high skilled workforce, three universities and a focus on sectors such as the creative industries, that there is a real opportunity for Cardiff to become a magnet for not only attracting knowledge-based start-ups but in developing its own indigenous entrepreneurs if there is clear strategic approach.

Perhaps there is scope for a mini Entrepreneurship Action Plan for Cardiff that identifies the resources required by entrepreneurs to build a successful local economy and the role that can be played by the Council and other bodies in facilitating this. I hope those putting together the final document will consider this carefully when putting together the strategy for the city’s economy.

There is therefore much to be done to ensure that Cardiff achieves its full economic potential and this consultation is a good starting point.

For Councillor Goodway and his officials, only time will tell whether they will get real buy-in to these plans from other stakeholders such as the Welsh Government and the private sector and, more importantly, whether this rhetoric can be turned into reality over the next few years.

MAKING THE CASE FOR ELECTRIFICATION OF RAILWAYS IN SOUTH WALES

Western Mail Column 10th March 2012

I am sure it will have been a massive disappointment that Cardiff was not chosen as the site for the UK Government’s £3 billion Green Investment Bank.

Given the worries by Westminster politicians over the independence vote in Scotland, the choice of Edinburgh as the site of the bank’s new headquarters was not much of a surprise, especially as the Scottish capital is already a major financial centre.

However, the real prize for South Wales from the UK Government is still out there, namely securing funding from the Department for Transport funding for the electrification of railways. Already, business cases have been prepared by the Welsh Government and submitted to the Department for Transport.

One focuses on the extension of the electrification of the Great Western main Line to Swansea, whilst the other on the entire valley line network, including lines to Ebbw Vale, Maesteg and the Vale of Glamorgan as well as the core valley lines north of Cardiff.

Both projects are equally important. The first in ensuring that the second city in Wales has a fast transport link to one of the World’s major cities, thus opening West Wales to potential investment, and the second in regenerating the South Wales Valleys and enabling efficient commuting to Cardiff.

Indeed, given the billions of pounds spent on trying to regenerate the poorest parts of Wales in the last decade, it is likely to be a transport project that brings workers to jobs, rather than the other way round, which is likely to have the biggest impact on the future prosperity of some of our poorest communities.

In fact, one can only applaud the current Welsh Government for finally supporting the development of a city region of 1.4 million people around Cardiff. But if it is to succeed as a modern European city, then it has to have a modern transport infrastructure to support any future development.

Given the changes that have occurred in Cardiff since devolution, it is incredible to think that there has been no major project in the capital city of Wales since 1995, when the last section of the section of road from Culverhouse Cross to Cardiff Bay was opened.

In addition, the development of a strong financial services sector in the city based on a new enterprise zone, which is the aim of both Cardiff Council and the Welsh Government, could see tens of thousands of extra jobs created in this sector alone by 2020. Yet, without a coherent strategic approach to transport, the revitalisation of Cardiff and much of South Wales is likely to be undermined.

And it is no longer acceptable that our capital city remains at the European average in terms of connectivity by road and rail when it is trying to position itself as a competitive international centre. 

In fact, Mark Barry, in his excellent paper for the Cardiff Business Partnership - A Metro for Wales’ Capital City Region, hit the nail squarely on the head by stating that whilst a good transport infrastructure does not guarantee economic success, it is also true that economic success can only occur where there is a good transport infrastructure.

So, ensuring the success of the electrification of the Valley Line Network and the main line to Swansea is critical, as any negative decision will mean that it will probably be decades until a similar case can be made successfully, ensuring that Wales will continue to bump along the bottom of the UK’s prosperity league table.

I have been reliably informed that the business case prepared for both projects by Welsh Government officials has been thorough and professional and should stand up against other projects from other parts of the UK that are also looking for funding.

However, things are never that simple, especially when there is strong lobbying for rail schemes in and around Manchester and the Midland Mainline Electrification. And whilst some may think that Wales ‘deserves’ the funding, others will be making the same case for their regions.

Given this, it is vital that we adopt a strong “Team Wales” approach to this, which not only involves politicians from all parties in the National Assembly, but also businesses in the region and local authorities. But most importantly, the Welsh Government needs to put aside any political differences it may have and work closely with the Wales Office to ensure there is a strong voice for both transport projects within the corridors of Whitehall.

The stakes are far too high for petty political point scoring and if this opportunity is missed because of an inability to work together for the benefit of our economy, then it will be Wales that will be the poorer for it.