Swansea Bay report 2017

In June 2017 foundationaleconomy.com and CREW (Centre for Regeneration Excellence in Wales) launched What Wales Can Do a new report on policy for the Swansea Bay city region. This new report follows up the earlier 2015 report What Wales Can Be and adds new evidence, arguments and framing. The argument in this new report is for an asset based approach to developing the foundational economy in the region. The starting point is two observations about the limits of the main stream policies and policy making. The Swansea Bay City Deal which was signed off in Spring 2017 focuses on next generation industries which will never be volume employers; and more fundamentally, government (local, Welsh and national) does not know what to do in key policy areas like small business support and adult care.  So what we need is a coalition of state and non- state actors to undertake scaleable experiments. These would aim to break down the barriers between economic and social policy and increase tangible welfare (not market incomes measured by GVA per capita). The report can be downloaded here. This is now being followed up with local funded experiments in Swansea Bay Blaenau Gwent.