Will the Minister provide an update on the £10 million investment into the Tech Valleys?
To date, over £40 million has been committed from the Tech Valleys programme, much of this has been big ticket items involving buildings and land remediation. As a result, the Tech Valleys Programme has developed 270,000 sq. ft. of new and refurbished commercial, start-up and industrial floor-space, which will facilitate business expansion aimed at Industry 4.0.
Whilst Blaenau Gwent remains the focus of the Tech Valleys programme, the impact is being felt by the wider Northern Valleys community, to ensure local residents have better jobs, closer to home. The programme is delivering well and is on-track in terms of spend and progress towards objectives and has gained traction and recognition. The growing portfolio of projects and ideas, and outward-facing communications are raising the profile of the whole of the northern valleys. A number of discussions are also taking place with potential inward investors.
A recent report by Professor Huggins at Cardiff University evaluated Blaenau Gwent’s competitiveness. This report stated that when compared with a selection of local authority comparator localities for 2011 to 2021 there is a very promising pattern of change for Blaenau Gwent in terms of its overall competitiveness. In fact, Blaenau Gwent enjoyed the largest improvement in its UK Competitiveness Index score in the period prior to the two shocks of Brexit and Covid-19. If this trajectory is to continue Blaenau Gwent would quickly lose the unwanted tag of the least competitive locality.
There are positive trends in the outcomes of Learners in the Blaenau Gwent area, with science achievement having improved across all schools in the region. The Tech Valley’s investments in STEM school enrichment programmes have established a new era of collaboration between education and world leading, advanced manufacturing companies. The aim is to encourage learners to study STEM subjects which lead to highly paid, highly skilled STEM careers. As a consequence businesses will be able to recruit from within the locality and address the skills gap.