More scrutiny ahead for Swansea Bay City Deal
The 11 projects underpinning the £1.3bn City Deal for the Swansea Bay City Region will each have to undergo further scrutiny before progressing to implementation.
And it could be years before it is known exactly how much each of the four local authorities that make up the region – in Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Pembrokeshire – will have to commit financially to the deal. However, they are all expected to utilise local government borrowing powers.
On Monday Prime Minister Theresa May was in Swansea to sign off the City Deal with First Minister Carwyn Jones and the four local authority leaders.
The councils, alongside the region’s two health boards and two universities, are committed to providing £396m for the deal, which is forecast to create around 10,000 new jobs over its 15 years.
The UK and Welsh governments are committing £241m between them, while collectively the 11 projects are seeking to secure an ambitious £673m in private sector leveraged finance.
A Swansea Council spokesman said: “Over the coming months and years, the business case for each of the schemes we are involved with will come before the council and it will be at that point that we will agree the exact amount of our financial commitment to them.”
And a spokeswoman for Swansea University said: “A more accurate figure will be determined in the next stage of the business planning process.”
Speaking on behalf of the four authorities, a spokeswoman said: “I’m afraid we are unable to give this breakdown of figures just yet. Work will now start on business cases for each project, and the local authority funding contributions will be discussed as part of that process.”
Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart, who has been spearheading the City Deal process, said there were many variables still to work through.
“It’s not that we’re trying to elude the question – no figure is a correct figure,” he said. “We will try to minimise the borrowing required.”
Mr Stewart said the final figures would depend on which other partners came in on the various projects, and what grants may or may not become available in the meantime.
Mr Stewart said the Swansea Bay City Region City Deal was more advanced in relation to other UK deals that have already been agreed in principle for some time, but where projects have yet to materialise.
The Swansea Labour leader said each of the 11 projects – which include a wellness and life sciences campus for Llanelli, a new steel innovation centre in Port Talbot and a range of property schemes for Swansea – had already gone through a robust test with both the Treasury and the Welsh Government, but would still require a further sign-off before getting under way.
He said there was no pecking order for the projects in terms of priority, but that a two-pronged governance structure with public sector and private sector leaders had to be finalised.
Mr Stewart, if still council leader after May’s local government elections, said he wanted to see work start on the new digital district on The Kingsway and also the new indoor arena, hotel and car park at St David’s late this year or early in 2018. The projects will receive financial backing from the City Deal.
On the borrowing question, he said: “Every one of the projects will be subject to a decision by council.”