Estimated to attract around £1.26 billion of investment by 2033 the Swansea Bay City Deal is an unprecedented investment funded by the Welsh Government and UK Government, the public sector, and the private sector through the counites of Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea. It will help transform South West Wales’ urban and rural areas into a place where businesses can thrive, and residents can boost their skills and gain access to over 9,000 well-paid job opportunities.
During 2024, the momentum of the City Deal continued to gather pace, and 2025 is expected to be another successful year for all nine headline projects and programmes. Through collaborative working between key partners, exciting milestones will be met and key constructions completed, further boosting the economy and growing the region.
Pentre Awel phase one, led by Carmarthenshire County Council, is due to open in 2025. The state-of-the art facility named Canolfan will welcome the community and world-class businesses by combining medical research and business incubation, healthcare delivery, education and training along with leisure facilities to encourage people to lead active, healthy lifestyles.
Swansea City Centre will see the opening of 71/72 Kingsway in early 2025. Developed by Swansea Council and also part-funded by the Welsh European Funding Office, the new office will provide space for 600 jobs in sectors such as tech and digital. Over 75% of the office space is now under offer and tenants soon to be announced.
Also, as part of the Swansea City Centre project University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) Innovation Matrix will be formally launched in 2025. The state-of-the-art building will connect business and academia and provide space for start-up businesses and researchers. The building will connect the University’s research and knowledge exchange activities with complimentary enterprises, entrepreneurs, and investors. The resulting collaborations will generate economic impact in the form of new product development, job creation, graduate start-ups, University spin-outs and new intellectual property.
Discussions between UWTSD and Swansea Council during 2025 will also consider a follow on project to develop additional research and collaboration space at the Innovation Precinct.
Swansea Arena will celebrate its third year of operation with its 750,000th guest through the door, and headline performances for 2025 include The Manic Street Preachers, Paddy McGuinness, Alison Moyet and Max Boyce, as well as diverse range of events, conferences and ceremonies.
Campuses, a further Swansea based project led by Swansea University, will carry out site work preparation for Sketty Lane Innovation Centre and progress the design and tendering process for the Management Centre at Moriston Hospital. The Centres will establish an environment to support the development and testing of medical, heath, well-being and sports technologies. The project will also grow the recently established National Network for Innovation in Sports and Health to create a community of professionals collaborating in health technology.
The Neath Port Talbot Council led Supporting Innovation and Low Carbon Growth programme have submitted plans for the SWITCH facility and a funding decision is expected in early 2025. This is a collaborative innovation centre to assist in the decarbonisation of the steel and metals industry and its supply chain, to strengthen collaboration between industry and academia and to future-proof the steel and metals industry in Wales and the UK. The programme will also be welcoming further tenants to the energy positive and award-winning Bay Technology Centre, as well as progressing the Property Development Fund applications and delivery.
Yr Egin, home to S4C’s headquarters and 15 creative and digital companies, on UWTSD’s Carmarthen campus, will see in 2025 at 100% occupancy. The creative sector hub will celebrate its seventh successful year of operation with a programme of key events, screenings, performances and educational workshops and will continue to provide high quality livestreaming, post production and hotdesking facilities to an array of clients and businesses. Yr Egin generated an economic impact of £21.6m in the Welsh economy in 2022 – 23.
The Pembroke Dock Marine project will see Pembroke Port continue with their commercial operations of the laydown space and workboat pontoons, and welcome additional tenants to the Hangar Annexes following the official opening in Summer 2024. The Marine Energy Test Area will continue to provide pre-consented real sea test facilities for marine energy technologies. The MEECE element will build on its success of leveraging £2 million private sector funding though university and industry led projects. The Pembrokeshire Demonstration Zone will continue to utilise its lease area to support the development and validation of new technology that could be deployed in commercial projects in the late 2020s early 2030s.
The three regional projects are also on track to deliver against their targets in 2025.
The Homes as Power Stations project which is facilitating the adoption of energy efficient design and renewable technologies into homes is set to launch its Supply Chain Fund. This is a £7 million fund allocation that will support the development of a sustainable regional supply chain. Having already launched the Financial Incentives Fund a significant part of the £5.75m has been allocated to numerous housing schemes across the region where Cardiff University’s Welsh School of Architecture are carrying out Technical Monitoring and Evaluation on hundreds of homes to share the learning and accelerate the number of homes with renewable technology.
The Skills and Talent programme, with over 25 pilot projects and apprenticeship developments already in delivery and will continue to work with industry, developing additional pilot projects to ensure the new skills of the future are met to benefit the region. The success of the Destination Renewables pilot is reflected in the uptake of the curriculum being rolled out by other providers across the UK in 2025. The programme will continue to build on strategic partnerships in both the public and private sectors to ensure the region benefits from a skilled workforce to meet immediate industry demand, as well as the skills needs of the future.
The Digital Infrastructure programme will continue to deliver projects across its three workstreams: Rural, Connected Places, and Next Generation Wireless. Ongoing collaboration with key stakeholders and partners will continue to drive inward investment, enhancing connectivity for homes and businesses throughout the City Deal region.
Councillor Rob Stewart, Chairman of the Swansea Bay City Deal’s Joint Committee, said “Progress of the City Deal during 2024 has been fantastic as we continue to build, grow and invest in South West Wales. Through our collaborative working we have seen great progress across the entire portfolio, and complimentary initiatives across the region such as Levelling Up funded initiatives, the Celtic Freeport bid and the Global Centre of Rail Excellence in Wales are also coming into fruition.
“I feel privileged to be part of this fantastic journey that is transforming South West Wales for the better and look forward to exciting things to come”.
