Growth Deal creates just 121 of 4,200 promised jobs after five years

Just 121 jobs have been created by a £240m economic programme five years into a 15-year deal expected to deliver more than 4,000.

The North Wales Growth Deal has created 63 full-time roles and 58 construction jobs so far, figures presented to Wrexham councillors by Ambition North Wales show.

The figures prompted concerns from members of Wrexham County Borough Council’s Employment, Business and Investment Scrutiny Committee about the pace of progress, with the Growth Deal now a third of the way through its planned delivery period.

The Growth Deal, backed jointly by the UK and Welsh governments, is intended to create 4,200 jobs over 15 years and underpins the Flintshire and Wrexham Investment Zone.

Seven projects are now in full delivery, up from four the previous year, while a further 10 have been approved but are not yet under way.

Spending has so far reached £15m, with a further £2m in match funding from project sponsors.

Cllr Andy Gallanders questioned when the promised jobs would materialise.

“The report talks successfully about the business cases, the procurement, project development, but the actual number of jobs delivered is very low compared to the ambition,” he said.

“Can you give us a realistic timetable of delivering the 4,000 plus jobs?”

Ambition North Wales Portfolio Director Hedd Vaughan-Evans said the jobs would be delivered over the full lifetime of the deal.

“The realistic timetable is the 4,000 jobs will be delivered over the 15-year period,” he said.

“There is 10 years left to deliver those jobs. We will start to see job numbers ramp up significantly over the next two to three years but the total figure will be achieved towards the end of the growth deal period.

“There is obviously a time lag in terms of the investments and we’ve had challenges in the first few years of the growth deal in delivering the investments.

“We are now seeing that funding go out of the door and these projects are actually out on-site delivering now.

“The first thing you will see is the construction jobs start to increase as those projects are delivered. Once the facilities are completed, that is when we will see the majority of the job creation.”

Wrexham Gateway

Councillors also raised concerns about progress on the Wrexham Gateway project, which Ambition North Wales is helping to fund and which is expected to account for 697 jobs.

Cllr Gallanders asked: “Can you confirm whether Wrexham Gateway currently has a legally binding commitment from any tenant or occupier?

“Obviously there’s 697 jobs tied up with that.”

Ambition North Wales Land and Property Manager David Mathews said he was not aware of any tenant having agreed to take space within the project.

“There’s no legally binding arrangements as yet,” he said.

“But in fairness the project is at the stage where there’s a fairly developed proposal.

“Discussions are still ongoing between the agents on behalf of the authority and potentially interested occupiers. That’s our understanding.”

Update

The committee requested a further update from Ambition North Wales on the Gateway project in November amid concerns about its progress.

Cllr Gallanders said: “Could we have an information report in two months’ time because we need to know where that project is sitting?

“Otherwise we’ll come here next year and – with no disrespect to the people that have presented to us today – there’s not really much difference from the presentation we had last year.

“It’s all in motion, so we need to just make motion reality.”

The committee voted in favour of receiving the further update in November.

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