What can we do to increase inward investment?

The Inward Investment Scrutiny Inquiry found that Swansea has many assets that could potentially encourage investment to the area like, for example, superfast Broadband, good transport links, relatively low property and rental costs, a large ready loyal labour force and facilities for training, research and development through our Universities and colleges locally.  However, it highlighted that work needs to be done to pro actively encourage investment and currently the resources to do so are limited, recognising that potentially this could be addressed through the new City Regions Strategy.  The Panel believe that we need to work more with other organisations and local business to increase our resource and skills base in order be able to have a wider reach.

The Inquiry took place over the a six month period and will now report its findings and recommendations to the Councils Cabinet for decision.  The Inquiry included speaking to a wide selection of interested parties and included a survey of staff, local business, other public sector organisations and Councillors.  The Panel spoke to the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and officers from the council, Swansea Bay Futures, Business Support Wales, South West Wales Chamber of Commerce, Swansea University and the General Manager from Sony UK.

The Panel have made a number of recommendations to Cabinet including for example:

• That there is a clear mechanism in place with the new city regions strategy that will make it accountable to local politicians.
• That a single point of contact for business/investment queries be introduced
• That the city region develops an effective support network including allocating resources to do pro active work around seeking inward investment

The Panel’s main expectations of the impact of this report is twofold:

• An improvement in the processes across the region in particular in relation to organisation working together to deliver on improved inward investment opportunities and to develop a brand and sell Swansea and the region on a global stage.
• An improvement in outcomes by increased investment in the region from organisations that are going to bring the maximum benefit to Swansea

You can find a full copy of the report on the Council’s web pages by following this link