Council chief calls for county to start working with the private sector to secure investment

Elgan Hearn, Local democracy reporter

A senior council chief wants to see the county borough start working with the private sector to entice investment.

The comments were made at a special meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Economic Development and Environmental Management scrutiny committee on Monday, January 5.

At this meeting councillors were presented with a report to select an area of Blaenau Gwent to receive UK Government funding of up to £20 million over a 10-year period.

This funding is available for part of the UK suffering from deep-rooted deprivation.

Cllr Jonathan Millard (Reform UK – Ebbw Vale South) asked what alternative funding pots were available for regeneration projects across the rest of Blaenau Gwent.

This contingency would be needed if councillors chose to favour the recommended option, which was to concentrate the government funding in the Sirhowy and Tredegar area.

Joint Director for Economy for both Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen councils Christina Harrhy said: “We’re reliant on grant funding from UK and Welsh Governments and while that is great and we do our best to maximise those opportunities, we need more.

“As part of our strategy going forward, I will be asking members (councillors) to consider what is their appetite to work closer with the private sector and start looking at some investment partners that brings private equity to the county borough.

“That comes with some risk, there is funding out there we haven’t targeted yet.”

Ms Harrhy stressed that the “opportunities are there” if councillors agree to go after it.

Over that 50 years Blaenau Gwent has seen the decline of heavy industries such as coal mining and steel-making – which has seen people leave the area to look for work elsewhere.

Three major economic development projects have come forward over the last 15 years that were expected to revive the county borough’s fortunes and create hundreds of jobs, but these hopes have been continually dashed

Last July, Turkish firm Ciner announced that they had pulled out of a project to build a £390 million glass bottle making factory in Ebbw Vale due to questions around the “commercial viability” of the scheme.

The Circuit of Wales project was for a £425 million motor racing circuit and technology park development proposal on moorland on the outskirts of Ebbw Vale which first appeared in 2011.

The intention was that it would be funded by private investors and backed by the Welsh Government.

In 2017 the then Labour business minister Ken Skates, with the backing of the Welsh Government cabinet, turned down a request by the company behind the project to underwrite a £210 million loan.

The former Techboard factory building in Ebbw Vale was bought by the Welsh Government in 2017 and refurbished so that sports car manufacturer TVR could set up there.

Hopes that TVR would come to make cars in Blaenau Gwent evaporated just before Christmas 2023.

At the time councillors were told that an exclusive deal that allowed TVR to use the former Techboard factory had lapsed.