Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 15 February 2017.
Thank you. Last week, I chaired a cross-party group on small and medium-sized enterprises, and the guest speaker was Professor Karel Williams from the University of Manchester. He raised the concept of the city region and made particular reference to Greater Manchester, and he said that while it works as a concept in many ways, Wales would do well to learn from some of the problems that they’ve encountered there. Chief among these was the fact that the economy of Manchester city centre is a lot stronger and more prosperous than the outlying satellite towns. I believe in the city deal, but I also believe we need to make sure it benefits the communities of the northern Valleys, and, for me, they are the towns and villages that aren’t signposted on the M4 or the A465. These areas have not benefited from public or private investment on the same scale seen on the M4 corridor and Heads of the Valleys, and, therefore, how will the Cardiff capital region deal ensure, going forward, that they do?