Cardiff City Deal team settle into their new Nantgarw headquarters

THE £1.2bn City Deal for the Cardiff Capital Region has set up its new programme office in Nantgarw.

To date the City Deal, of which £734m has been ring-fenced for the next phase of the Metro transport project with electrification of the Valley Lines, has backed the ambitious compound semiconductor cluster planned for Newport, that could create thousands of new jobs.

Other projects that could be backed include huge park-and-ride schemes around key stations on the Metro network. Initiatives supporting new house-building activity across the region, as well as skills, are also likely to feature.

The City Deal is being funded by the Welsh and UK governments, as well as capital borrowings of £120m from the the 10 local authorities that make up the city region.

Over the 20 years of the City Deal, the aim is to create 25,000 new jobs, as well as leveraging a further £4bn in private sector funding.

It comes as leader of Rhondda Cyon Taf Council, Andrew Morgan, was unanimously elected chair of the City Deal regional cabinet by the other nine council leaders.

The programme team will oversee the delivery of the regional cabinet’s work programme.

Based at Ty Dysgu, the senior team is lead by Sheila Davies as programme director.

She said: “We welcome the opportunity to be so centrally based in terms of the Cardiff Capital Region.”

Mr Morgan said “The opening of this new office for the City Deal programme team marks a key moment in the journey of the City Deal.”