Written question WQ86624

To date, over £40 million has been committed from the Tech Valleys programme, much of this has been big ticket items involving buildings and land remediation. As a result, the Tech Valleys Programme has developed 270,000 sq. ft. of new and refurbished commercial, start-up and industrial floor-space, which will facilitate business expansion aimed at Industry 4.0.

Whilst Blaenau Gwent remains the focus of the Tech Valleys programme, the impact is being felt by the wider Northern Valleys community, to ensure local residents have better jobs, closer to home.

The programme is delivering well and is on-track in terms of spend and progress towards objectives and has gained traction and recognition. The growing portfolio of projects and ideas, and outward-facing communications are raising the profile of the whole of the northern valleys. A number of discussions are also taking place with significant potential inward investors.

A recent report by Professor Huggins at Cardiff University evaluated Blaenau Gwent’s competitiveness. This report stated that when compared with a selection of local authority comparator localities for 2011 to 2021 there is a very promising pattern of change for Blaenau Gwent in terms of its overall competitiveness. In fact, Blaenau Gwent enjoyed the largest improvement in its UK Competitiveness Index score in the period prior to the two shocks of Brexit and Covid-19.

There are positive trends in the outcomes of Learners in the Blaenau Gwent area, with science achievement having improved across all schools in Blaenau Gwent.

The Tech Valley’s investments in STEM enrichment programmes have established a new era of collaboration between education and world leading, advanced manufacturing companies through a programme of initiatives such as the Welsh Valleys Engineering Project, the STEM Facilitation Programme and the National Digital Exploitation Centre’s Education Outreach Programme. These programmes in conjunction with other, pan-Wales, Welsh Government funded programmes, such as Careers Wales and Technocamps represent our significant investment in the region.

This focus on education is key to improving the job prospects of learners, to help them understand the value that employers have for STEM subjects. The ambition is to encourage the uptake of STEM GCSEs, which lead to post-16 STEM qualifications which will enable the residents of Tech Valleys to gain highly paid, highly skilled jobs that will be created as a result of the impact of Industry 4.0. As a consequence, businesses will be able to recruit from within the locality and the skills gap will be addressed.

Highlights of the Tech Valleys programme include:

• A large-scale demonstrator with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to roll out a network of 5G across key locations in Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire.

• A school STEM enrichment programme across a wide geographical area through the National Digital Exploitation Centre, raising awareness of digital and cyber opportunities and supported students to MSc, and PhD research levels in this field

• Supporting Thales to roll-out the new Resilient Works cyber security test-facility in Ebbw Vale which supports SMEs across Wales.

• Developing the Business Productivity Enhancement Programme and scaled it up so that all companies in the southeast region can now benefit from the programme.

• Completed a successful Tech Valleys peer to peer network, building on the success of the previous Valleys Taskforce demonstrator.

Projects approved from the Tech Valleys programme (in development, underway or completed) to-date:

• Lime Avenue Business Park (hybrid units) £3.15 million

• National Digital Exploitation Centre - education programme £12 million

• Lime Avenue Regain 2 building £7 million

• Rural Connected Communities (5G) programme £1.2 million

• STEM Facilitation £219,000

• Modernising public service delivery £228,000

• Peer to peer network £75,000

• Business Productivity Enhancement Programme £550,000

• Centre for Digital Public Services £250,000

• Business Premises Improvement (decarbonisation) Grant £500,000

• Former Techboard building £7 million

• Thales Resilient Works £3.5 million

• WVEP employer strand £349,140

• IoT and LoRaWAN programme £155,549

• Former Monwel building HiVE proposal £360,000

• Lime Avenue Employment Park £3 million

• Business Improvement District £100,000

• Sundry small commitments (e.g. studies, advice etc) £3,000