The Cardiff Capital Region has launched its new regional growth board to provide it with strategic advice with its lay members drawn from the private and education sectors.
The city region, made up of the ten local authorities of south-east Wales, is now a statutory body - the South East Corporate Joint Committee to give it its official name. It will continue to be branded and operate as the Cardiff Capital Region.
The region is looking to new borrowing powers, retention of business rates as the operator of a new investment zone, as well as continuing to reinvest returns from debt and equity investments as part of a long-term evergreen strategy. The region has around £57m yet to deploy from its £1.2bn City Deal, agreed with the Ƶ and Welsh governments back in 2016.
The regional growth board (which replaces the previous regional economic growth partnership) is chaired by Cardiff-born global investment strategist with Rothschild & Co Kevin Gardiner. The economist was a member of the region's previous regional economic growth partnership and coined the phrase the Celtic Tiger to describe the transformation of the economy of the Irish Republic in the 1990s in an investment report for Morgan Stanley.
The other lay members are: vice-chair and vice chancellor of Cardiff University, Wendy Larner: Nick Bennett, director, strategic advisory, Savills; Dr Louise Bright, pro vice chancellor enterprise, engagement and partnerships, University of South Wales; Mark John, co-founder, Tramshed Tech; and Professor Robert Huggins, chair of economic geography at Cardiff University and director of its centre for economic geography.
Also on the board is chair of the region’s investment board and partner with corporate finance boutique Gambit, Frank Holmes.
The regional growth board is also made up of the ten leaders of the local authorities that make up the region, as well as representatives from the region’s strategic development and regional transport sub-committees.
Following the board’s inaugural meeting, Mr Gardiner, who was raised in the Ely area of Cardiff, said: “I am pleased and proud to share in the next stage of Cardiff Capital Region’s journey with the first meeting of the new regional growth board. It is our job to offer practical advice to the region’s decision makers on how best to deliver a bigger, fairer, and greener regional economy.”
Huw Thomas, leader of Cardiff Council and deputy chair of Cardiff Capital Region said: “The first meeting of the growth board is another milestone for the region in its journey to be a force for inclusive growth. The partnership between businesses, universities and local councils was a key part of our City Deal’s initial success, and establishing the regional growth board now sets the platform for future growth.”
