City Deal spending £1m a year on ‘admin costs’
THE £1.2bn Cardiff Capital Region City Deal bill for administration costs is £1m a year, the chairman has revealed.
The City Deal, which involves 10 local authorities from across southeast Wales, aims to create 25,000 jobs across the region and bring in £4bn of private sector investment by 2036.
Speaking at a Bridgend County Council scrutiny committee meeting on the City Deal, Councillor Jane Gebbie said: “I want to know what the cost of the administration of this deal is going to be. I don’t want it all to be spent on a new office for new companies, and the money isn’t going anywhere.”
She added: “I’m really concerned about the administration of the City Deal – how much have we already spent when we haven’t actually achieved anything?”
Responding, chairman of the City Deal and Rhondda Cynon Taf council leader Andrew Morgan said the administration costs were about £1m a year.
This includes auditing costs, as well as covering the cost of the regional transport authority, the regional housing programme and the skills and digital programme.
Coun Morgan said: “We have to do due diligence on projects when they come forward like the IQE project to make sure that what we were investing in would see a return.
“However, the funding for that project is largely a loan and we should recoup all our money.”
He said the funding was scrutinised by the 10 leaders at a joint cabinet on a quarterly basis, adding: “We are trying to bring together some functions and centralise them so hopefully we are not duplicating costs across different authorities.
“It needs to be scrutinised and I can assure you as council leaders we do ask questions and challenge when its needed.”
The regional cabinet consists of the 10 council leaders from the 10 local authorities with the council chief executives attending as officers to provide advice.
Bridgend council leader Huw David added: “The Future Generations Commissioner and the Welsh Audit Office are also scrutinising very carefully what we are doing and we have a joint scrutiny committee in Bridgend scrutinising in detail the work of the City Deal.”
Bridgend council’s chief executive Darren Mepham told councillors certain measures were required when it came to governance and scrutiny which cost money but the administration team was “very lean” when compared to other City Deals across the UK.
Both the UK and Welsh Government are contributing £500m each to the City Deal, while £100m is coming from the European Regional Development Fund. The 10 local authorities are providing a minimum of £120m over the 20-year period.