Neath Port Talbot Council’s cabinet has endorsed the business case for its new City Deal projects.
The local authority wants £47.7m from the Swansea Bay City Deal over five years for the replacement projects which it says will help protect jobs as well as create new ones, and provide vital office, manufacturing and laboratory space for small to medium-sized business.
The business case will now be submitted to the City Deal economic strategy board and joint committee as well as both the Welsh and UK Governments for approval.
At the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, July 30, the council’s chief executive Steven Phillips said there was a need for pace and urgency.
He said: “We now have the opportunity to draw a line under the last seven or eight months of a rather difficult situation.
“There is a need for pace and urgency – we want to see urgent progress on these business cases and others.
“We have done everything we can and everything we promised to do to take the City Deal forward.
“The onus is really on the two governments to respond to the business cases before them.
“We really do need to get on with the delivery of it now.”
At the meeting councillor Del Morgan pointed out the recent release of £18m funding of central government money for two City Deal projects in Swansea, asking whether the “powers that be” were “getting back at us for our stance” in relation to the lack of progress.
Mr Phillips said two of the council’s projects – Steel Science and Factory of the Future – had involved issues with land being transferred in Fabian Way that was owned by the Welsh Government.
He said: “We raised this issue nearly two years ago with them. We have had an agreement in principle but we have been unable to transfer the land.
“No site equals no project for two of them.
“With regards to our homes for power stations we have been disappointed by lack of substantive response from both governments.
“That business case was submitted on August 4 – a year ago.
“The £18m approved funding which was announced two weeks ago is subject to terms and conditions.
“The joint committee was very clear in discussion yesterday – it’s not just Neath Port Talbot.
“It’s now well over two years since the then Prime Minister and the then First Minister signed this deal along with the four council leaders and we need to get on with the delivery.”
He added: “I don’t think we are being punished.
“I have been very clear in reports we need clarity around the funding, we are not putting this council at risk financially.
“We are prepared to borrow on the right terms and take commercial risks but we are not prepared to jeopardise other council activities.
“I make no apologies for that and I will carry on saying that.”
Mr Phillips said he expected to have a “high level response” to the revised business cases by the end of September with a response from ministers by Christmas.
He said while Swansea University remained a partner in various projects “the context for the discussions will be very, very different”.
Officers said progress was being made on the homes as power stations project following a meeting with government officials last week.
The council’s director of environment Gareth Nutt said a further meeting was planned for September to address some of the questions raised but the business case was regarded as being comprehensive and well-structured.
He told councillors there were plans to build around 250 homes as power stations in the region as well as retrofit 1,000 homes.
He said while registered social landlords and certain local authorities which built homes were interested in the scheme it was a more chequered picture in the private sector.
He said: “Part of the project is to generate the activity – we want to mainstream it and we want to develop the supply chain behind it.
“If we can get this moving it could well be taken up across the UK.”
Mr Phillips said the plans to create more business and office space in the Enterprise Zone – among the new proposals – involved matching the supply to the demand.
He said: “This is not one of those ‘we will build it and hope they come’ – we have a simple demand and supply problem.
“It is more or less 100% let in both ends of the enterprise zone.”
In relation to the new decarbonisation focus Mr Phillips said: “We are not pretending this is the only answer but we have got to make a start somewhere.
“We do have some strong foundations on which to build.
“At the end of the day declaring climate change emergencies are all very well but there is an onus on public bodies like us to respond with something concrete and that’s what this is doing.”
