Agenda item

As detailed in the recommendation.

The Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance provided an update on the review of establishing City Regions in Wales and the position on the Mersey Dee Alliance (MDA) area.

            In early 2012, Dr Elizabeth Haywood was appointed to consider the potential for establishing City Regions in Wales.  Whilst rejecting the case for a City Region, based around Wrexham, Deeside and Chester, the Report by Dr Elizabeth Haywood made four recommendations with implications for the MDA and the cross-border economy:

• To become a real strategic force in the region, the MDA will need to be given relevant powers and funding.  It will also need to change its structure, to incorporate strong private and education (HE/FE) sector membership.
• The MDA should have the authority to develop a cross-border labour market plan, and to develop and deliver a regional skills agenda
• The MDA should take the lead in promoting the region for investment purposes, making a virtue of its cross-border nature and rejecting the existing tendency to focus marketing on one side of the border or the other
• There should be a Memorandum of Understanding between the Welsh Government and UK Government covering cross-border transport planning (binding on independent bodies such as Network Rail), with the MDA, or Taith and the Cheshire Local Transport Partnership, having a statutory role to be heard on proposals of regional significance.

The Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance said that whilst it was disappointing that Dr Haywood was unable to accept the evidence presented, the recommendations made, if approved by the Minister, did represent a considerable advance on what was currently in place.  The new arrangements, particularly the proposal to develop a Memorandum of Understanding between UK and Welsh Governments on cross border working would enable the MDA to tackle a range of key issues that it was currently unable to.  These included road and rail investment, public transport, skills and labour market planning and investment plans for further and higher education.

The Chief Executive said the Haywood recommendations represented a considerable step forward for the MDA and would allow the organisation to become an increasingly effective player in driving forward the local economy.  The report also vindicated the approach taken by the Council, since it was a founder member of the MDA and the recommendations should be supported on the basis that the MDA was deserving of special status even it if did not conform to a City Region accepted definition. As part of the recognition, the Council would expect the MDA to be given equal importance as the two proposed South Wales City Regions (Cardiff and Swansea), equal funding benefit in economic development and infrastructure investment and equal marketing and promotion as a location for business growth.  Importantly, Wales – UK Government co-operation and joint infrastructure planning would be required in recognition of the cross-border area span of the MDA geography.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the Haywood Report be noted and the draft response set out in 3.02 be approved.