Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Let me begin by thanking Mike Hedges for using his short debate today for the topic of the Swansea bay city region deal. I’m going to focus my remarks on the deal itself, what it brings to south-west Wales, and the potential that it has for the future of the economy of that part of our country. We’ve long recognised the opportunities of city deals to make a lasting impact. Indeed, the Welsh Government held the view from November of last year that the Swansea bay region city deal was ready to be signed, and we’re very glad, now, that we’ve been able to reach that point. We welcome the successful signing of a deal that is worth £1.3 billion, and the Welsh Government, as the senior funder of the deal, will provide £125 million-worth of Welsh Government investment.

Now, the deal is based on an ambitious vision to position the region for the technologies of the future over the next 15 years. It aims to boost the local economy, to generate almost 10,000 new jobs, and to attract over £600 million from the private sector. The UK Government and the Welsh Government have worked together to help agree the city deal, but it’s important to remember that the deals are led by the ambition of local authorities and by regional collaboration amongst stakeholders. Leaders and chief executives of all four authorities have been vitally important in crafting the deal, as well as local health boards and universities. I want to acknowledge the contribution of Sir Terry Matthews, who has played a crucial role throughout the process, and, in the latter stages, the leadership of Rob Stewart, the leader of Swansea city council, was pivotal in bringing the whole deal to a conclusion. Over the past few months, Swansea, Carmarthen, Neath Port Talbot and Pembrokeshire councils have all worked with partners across the public and private sectors to come to a view of what is important for the future of the region to identify the steps that will allow them to produce sustainable economic growth in all parts of it. Unlike the Cardiff capital city deal, this deal begins by identifying 11 major project proposals. They’re put forward within the themes of health, energy, economic acceleration and smart manufacturing. All those proposals will require further work. They will all need to be presented. We are by no means without opportunities to take advantage of low and zero-carbon ideas as those project ideas are further developed and brought before funders. Together, they will deliver world-class facilities in physical infrastructure, together with major investment in the region’s digital infrastructure too.

The deal identifies and builds on the enormous strengths of the area. In energy, it takes the huge potential for renewables, and focuses on realising the potential of Pembroke Dock as a place for testing offshore energy technology and its commercialisation. In smart manufacturing, at the geographical opposite end of the deal area, there will be a new steel science centre, with a particular focus on environmental and energy improvement. In the life sciences—a key element in the future of the local economy—there is bolstering, through the deal, in new actions to integrate research and provide business incubator and clinical trials. And right across the whole of the deal area, the potential for economic acceleration is recognised as resting not simply on physical infrastructure, but crucially on the development of human capital. That is why, in all geographical parts of the Swansea city deal, there will be skills and talent development as an integral part of all the different investments that the deal brings.

It’s important to remember, Llywydd, too, that the development of city deals should not be seen as simply project delivery and funding vehicles. The Swansea city deal is meant to be a catalyst to capture the commitment that so many individuals and organisations demonstrate to the future prosperity of south-west Wales, to enhance a collective confidence that the investments secured through the deal can be put to work for the benefit of the whole region. And of course, as the Minister with responsibility for local government, I am particularly interested to see how the city deal unlocks the regional potential of the area. And building on what has been achieved in the Cardiff capital deal, our White Paper on local government reform proposes that the city deal areas become the place where we locate, in future, the responsibility for economic development, regional transport—as Mike has emphasised throughout his contribution—and land use planning. If you bring those responsibilities together and have them discharged on a regional basis, we believe that that will complement the deal and make sure that it delivers its full potential. To do that, the deal has a set of agreed governance arrangements, and a clear commitment to an implementation plan.

The governance arrangements are centred on a joint cabinet. It is very important, I believe, that final accountability in decision making should rest in the hands of elected individuals. Alongside the joint cabinet, there will be an economic strategy board that will be chaired by a representative of local private industry. It will monitor progress on the delivery of the deal and provide strategic advice to the joint committee on the way that the deal is operating on the ground. That governance arrangement will work with the UK Government and the Welsh Government to develop an agreed implementation, monitoring and evaluation plan in advance of implementation, and that will set out the proposed approach to making sure that we know that we can track the investments that we make and the impacts that they have on the local economy and on local communities. The city deal delivery team will provide the UK and Welsh Governments with a quarterly performance report. A joint scrutiny committee will be drawn from the membership of the four authorities to provide an independent scrutiny function and, in that way, involvement of local populations, as Suzy Davies said, is built into the way the deal is structured from the outset.

Now, anybody who has been involved in Welsh public life at local authority or at Assembly level will know that working collaboratively brings challenges as well as opportunities, but what we have seen in the Swansea bay city deal is a group of local authorities with significant other players willing to come together, willing to overcome those challenges, to find new ways of challenging traditional ways of working, to find shared objectives, and to make the compromises that are inevitable if you are going to agree on long-term investments dedicated to making the very most of the investment that is available. We stand on the cusp of this new deal, with the potential that it has for south-west Wales. Now, it will be for all those who have come round the table so successfully to date to go on demonstrating that they can turn the very promising plans that we have been able to support into real action on the ground.