Will the Minister provide an update on the work of each of the growth deals and city region deals?
At year 6 of the 15 year Cardiff City Region Growth Deal, CCR have 15 projects in delivery, covering investment in sites & property, transport and skills that span a number of priority sectors such as Digital, Compound Semi-Conductor and Life Sciences. A total of £257m of the £495m Wider Investment Fund has been committed, delivering 1,300 jobs, over £170m of GVA generated and over £50m leverage. Further to this, £150m of projects are currently at differing stages of the investment appraisal and due diligence process.
All projects and programmes in the Swansea Bay City Deal have now been approved and are in delivery. To date, four years of grant award has been receipted by the city deal totalling £77m, with £24m dispersed to programmes and projects with a further £3.1m committed by the end of June 2022. Benefits realisation reporting has commenced, and some key benefits have already been delivered including, for example, the completion of Yr Egin, the 3500 Seat Swansea Arena and the Bay Technology Centre.
The North Wales Economic Ambition Board is funded annually by both the Welsh and UK Government. To date the NWEAB has received two tranches of government funding; £16mill in Mar 2021, and £20.4mill in March 2022. The Digital Signal Processing Project was approved in December 2021 and is the first project to move into delivery. The NWEAB are working with partners to bring forward more projects into the delivery phase.
The Mid Wales Growth Deal Final Deal Agreement was signed by all three parties on 13 January 2022, setting out a Welsh Government, UK Government and Growing Mid Wales Board framework for how the Deal will be delivered. This includes the critical underpinning arrangements such as governance and assurance, monitoring & evaluation and communications. The focus now for the region is to further develop the shortlisted programme and project business cases as part of an evolving Portfolio Business Case, with the drawdown of the first tranche of funding anticipated for FY 2023/24.