Agenda item

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth provided Members with an overview of the activity to support enterprise and business growth specifically through the lens of the City Deal and the foundational economy; Well-being of Future Generations; placed based strategies; economic Inclusion; Anti-poverty; Valleys Regional Park; Valleys Task force; Mutual / Co-ops and Shared prosperity.

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth noted there was a number of big projects being delivered with one of the main principles and drivers for City Deal activity being around inclusive growth. Two of the main projects identified, that focused on various parts of the region, were the valley's task force and the valley’s regional park. She explained that one of the main evidence base used to help target some of the activity and intervention, was the UK competitive index, which strengthened the argument for locality based plans and enabled more of a focused approach and to be more targeted in the activities being delivered.  This has a strong influence on the investment prospectus which pulls out some of those key activities in terms of housing viability funds, transport activity, looking at making sure every locality has an element of investment and help's that local authority to become more competitive. In respect of place based activity there had been investment in Zip World, a really important investment focusing in the heads of the valley, encouraging additional supply chain opportunities and business growth, providing additional opportunities for foundational economy, workplaces and lots of activity around skills and development.

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth explained that as it stood, City Deal wasn't in a position to be able to apply into shared prosperity funds because of the way it was set up from UK government, although the bid was supported. As and when the shared prosperity fund became available on a regional footprint, it was hopeful that the CJC would have some potential influence into the distribution and the allocation of those funds. Further activities taking place across the region were some skills programmes, under what was badged as venture skills hub. There was a graduate offer, an apprenticeship offer, currently being explored, and venture specialists, through engagement with innovate UK, to provide some additional funding to support women in innovation and young people in innovation in SE Wales in addition to working alongside Cardiff University to develop a cyber masters.

In respect of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, the Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth confirmed that full consideration was given to the impact on all reports that went through to Cabinet, and a full assessment was undertaken to make sure projects were sustainable and looking at the long term. She noted that

Regional Cabinet had allocated £10m to the challenge fund pot which, was aimed around building local wealth and bringing innovative solutions to tackle some of the societal problems across the region, working alongside the 10 local authorities to identify those challenges and potentially how go out to the market to identify some of the solutions that could be brought forward. The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth finished by explaining that this was some of the activities based upon the core principles that were being done across the region to try to support enterprise and encourage business growth.

A Member thanked the Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth for the report and noted that he had raised in the past the importance of ensuring that skills are available, in particularly for the new technologies.  The Member recalled the visit made to the Newport semiconductor factory and he had pressed upon the supply chain and what was being done. If the skills weren’t available there would be a reliance on imported skills and imported component parts. The Member asked the Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth if she could enlarge upon the graduate programmes, including both the apprenticeship and graduate basis, one for the research and development and one for the hands-on production.

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth acknowledged that it was recognised that skills were a huge component of attracting businesses and getting them to stay in the area and there was a coordination affect needed, to start addressing what industry needed, to ensure filling the right gaps, rather than a cyber vacancy. Working alongside the regional skills partnership, a venture skills hub had been developed, recognising the support needed for apprenticeships, which would look at expanding, developing and rolling out a shared apprenticeship programme across the region, linking to priority sectors e.g. compound semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, the creative cluster and digital. In respect of the supply chain component, e.g., IQE, it was really important for them to have apprenticeships and equally important for their supply chain support network, to have a supply of good pipeline skilled workforce, so they were not only aware of their skills needs but that of the broader supply chain.

With regards to the graduate component, the Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth explained engagement had taken place, predominantly with SMEs across the region, giving them support to look at their future business needs and trying to encourage businesses to take on graduates across the area, recognising the benefits of recruiting a graduate, Over 100 graduates had been placed to date, and engagement with over 600 businesses across the region, recognising the need to keep that talent in Wales.  Alongside that, an Academy concept was being developed, which was an industry lead concept, with graduates able to go into intensive boot camps where they pick up all of the skills necessary to be able apply it into the workplace.  Again, working with industry and recognising some of the skills deficit, a cyber masters was being developed with Cardiff University.  This meant on completion of those courses, those graduates would get an automatic interview with some high profile businesses. So, there was a full suite of activity recognising everything the Member had said.

The Member thanked the Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth for her comprehensive answer. He welcomed the Academy approach which would hone the skills in a practical way. There was also a need to engage with WG, as there would be other funds available. The Member noted once the skills were in place, a place would be needed to operate. Whilst it was accepted it would be difficult to get the major names back into the Valley areas, what could be done, via City Deal, to ensure that run down industrial estates are revigorated with the right units to feed into the supply chain.

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth noted there were a couple of initiatives, including the strategic sites and premises fund, which was a pot of money available for all of the local authorities to be able to access and to put in applications, around the redevelopment, new build or expansion of business parks across the region. It was recognised, for the northern valley’s there was a slightly different viability assessment needed and so looking at a slightly different model. With regards to inwards investment, it was also being looked into more broadly to showcase that the long-term success of some of those areas. On a micro level, WG had been doing some work looking at co-worker spaces across the region to give businesses the opportunity to have satellite centres, so there were a couple of layers of intervention and support available.

A Member acknowledged that he was encouraged by response to the Member and asked, in terms of the investment in Zip World, could the Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth define what payback might be from that

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth provided Members with an overview on which the principles on which the investment was made but took into consideration the commercial sensitivities in her response.

A Member stated that Wales needed to be competitive because it was competing with City’s such as London and Bristol, etc., when it came to inward investments to Wales. For the valley town’s, there was a need for far more investments to come into those areas because jobs were needed, so there was a need to think outside the box. There was a need to attract businesses from abroad e.g., pharmaceutical companies, because these were long-term businesses, which would stay for far longer, and were committed to spending money in Wales because of the conditions and facilities and this was a job for the committee to put a bit more pressure on WG. There was also a transport issue because some companies would say they wouldn’t come into valley town’s, because transport links were poor, which needed to be sorted. The Member felt that local authorities should run as businesses, which was the only way to get the money and investment coming in and local authorities needed to spend more time on this but recognised that there wasn’t always the business expertise available and therefore sometimes there was a need to employee consultants.

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth stated that the Member had made a couple of really good points, particularly about local authorities’ capacity to be able to take some of the initiatives forward. She explained that as part of the skills programme, they were keen to look across the 10 local authorities to see what could be done to help with graduate recruitment in local authorities, particularly looking at succession planning, so there was fresh blood coming through.

The Member acknowledged that one of the things often talked about was graduate recruitment, although it was not always this. There were apprenticeships, and people who had not gone to University who had been some of the most successful. He emphasised there needed to be a mixed economy and it was about getting a different kind of workforce ready for the future.

A Member noted the contrast between graduates and apprentices and the idea of the apprenticeships being at a lower level than graduates. In terms of investment, the Member took on board that when incentives were put in, for firms abroad coming in, that once things dried up, they often moved away. In terms of investment, what he was talking about was UK based investment, by UK firms and if there was a need to import skills and bring people from abroad, bring those skills back to a UK based company.

The CCR Challenge Fund Manager end the discussion by noting that there was a small section on the Challenge fund. It was early days in the challenge fund but there were opportunities around the foundation economy benefits, the food related challenges and the compound semi-conductor. There were some exciting challenges around circular economy, lots going in health, big opportunities around social care although was early days in a lot of this, but the CCR Challenge Fund Manager was happy to give a more detailed update to Members in the future.