9. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline how the Swansea Bay city deal will benefit Neath? (OAQ51068)

The £1.3 billion Swansea city region city deal aims to boost the region’s economy by £1.8 billion and generate almost 10,000 new jobs. Two of the deal’s projects are based in Neath Port Talbot.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that reply. At the start of the city deal process, it was understood that the projects comprised within it, which draw both on public funding and private sector funding, would be evaluated and approved separately. It’s emerged, during discussions that we’ve had—with David Rees, and others in the region—that there may have been a change of approach at some point, requiring each of them to be signed off together, so to speak, which, given that there’s a mix of funding that contributes to each of those projects, obviously poses an obstacle to the execution of those projects. Could the Cabinet Secretary clarify what the Welsh Government’s position is in relation to this?

Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, I understand the point that Jeremy Miles is making. I think it’s important for me to say that when the deal was signed by the UK Government and the Welsh Government, together with local colleagues in the Swansea bay city region area, it was on the basis of 11 projects coming forward together to form a deal. Now, I’ve had further discussions with people locally as well. It remains important that those 11 projects develop as a coherent package. They are not 11 stand-alone separate things. They must mesh in with one another to create maximum impact. But I’m happy to confirm that we will not require all business cases to be signed off before funding for any one of them is released.

Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary.