City Deal could be on the cards for Newport
Posted on Monday 1st June 2015
Newport City Council’s cabinet will be asked to take the next steps on the council’s regional collaboration journey when they receive an update on the City Deal at its meeting on 8 June.
Cabinet will be asked to approve that the council proceeds with the negotiation of a City Deal with UK Government, Welsh Government and surrounding authorities.
City Deals are a way to provide funding for infrastructure investment and Newport City Council has a crucial role to play in the negotiations to conclude a city deal for the Cardiff Capital City Region of which the council is a member.
In March the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that more power was being given to Wales and that a city deal was being worked on.
A City Deal was announced for Glasgow last year and the city will benefit from funding worth £1.3bn.Cities in England have already been benefiting from this deal.
It is anticipated that a City Deal for the Cardiff Capital City Region could unlock significant new money to support investment in major infrastructure projects and would ensure that Newport makes the most of exciting developments such as the electrification of the south Wales mainline and the natural resources of Severn Estuary.
The Government’s aims of the City Deal programme are to devolve control to cities to:
- Take charge and responsibility of decisions that affect their area
- Do what they think is best to help businesses grow
- Create economic growth
- Decide how public money should be spent
Cardiff council would lead the work as they are the largest authority and is in line with the process of other parts of the UK.
All 10 local authorities that are part of the Cardiff Capital City Region will be asking their relevant cabinets for approval on the proposal to negotiate a City Deal and following this an outline proposal will be submitted to Welsh Government providing a high-level proposition. This would outline the key aims and objectives of the deal and would represent the start of a detailed process that is likely to take up to 12 months to complete.
For the initial work to take place it is proposed to create a fund of £500,000 with all 10 authorities contributing. The contribution each authority would make would be based on the population of each area and Newport City Council will be asked to contribute £50,000 which would come from the Invest to Save fund.
Cabinet will be asked to delegate authority to the chief executive to identify this budget and to work with other authorities to appoint specialist advisors to support the delivery of a detailed city deal proposal for south east Wales.