The UK Competitiveness Index, produced by the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, found that Blaenau Gwent is ranked 407th out of the 407 local areas benchmarked by the index. Merthyr Tydfil is ranked 405th, Caerphilly 403rd, and Rhondda Cynon Taf 395th.Of the 22 local authority areas across Wales, only two areas – Cardiff (126th) and Monmouth (152nd) – are ranked in the top 200.
The Index, which has been tracking data since 1997 and was first produced in 2000, takes into account factors including research and development expenditure, business start-up rates and proportion of working-age population with a degree.Other data taken into account includes exports per head of the population, productivity (output per hour), employment rates and gross weekly pay.
Cardiff is the only Welsh area performing above the UK average, and at a city level it is ranked the 12th most competitive city in Britain. Of the 44 cities benchmarked, Newport is ranked 31st and Swansea 41st.
Wales, like most regions of the UK, has a spread of high and low economic performers, but this has become accentuated in recent years as rural areas have increasingly struggled to compete for investment and employment.Coupled with this, the South Wales Valleys areas are continuing to suffer and the competitiveness edge Cardiff has gained may have reached a plateau.Among the UK nations and regions, Wales remains ranked 11th out of the 12, ahead of only North East England.
London remains the UK’s most competitive region, followed by the South East and the East of England.
Urban development in the UK is achieving a significant degree of success.this appears to be coming at the expense of many rural areas.
The biggest drops in competitiveness occurred within the rural economies of Scotland, South West England, Wales, and the North East of England.
What this clearly shows is that a one size fits all solution to regeneration is not the answer, Wales needs bespoke local solutions. Some one needs to be advising the ministers this way and not to use wide spread clusters - that ain't the answer.
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13 comments:
Good post Mam (as ever!)..
There does need to be bespoke local solutions . Flexibility is the key
in Assembly policy. Rural areas have fallen behind and many young people are wisely heading for areas of more opportunity.
agree with Rhetoric a good post, lets hope some of this is reported back to Ministers.
I wonder what and if advisors and civil servants are aware of a lot of information that is out there. Often you dont know what you dont know. How many people who read the various evidence, reports , network think baout feeding this into government, or directly to AMs or MPs, may be we should
where are the trolls when there is good stuff to read
Oh no! Not another example of Mam drawing our attention to the economic plight of Merthyr Tydfil?
For heaven's sake, she is on a relentless downer about my home town.
This is wrong with Merthyr. That is wrong with Merthyr etc...
Have you noticed, however, she never comes up with any solutions -just more problems.
Don't bring us problems Mam - give us answers to get us out of this malaise!
Tell us how we can attact a new multi-million pound investment to the town. New investment that would provide us with hundereds of new and well-paid jobs. New investment that would boost the local economy and address the competitiveness issues you discuss here.
Any ideas how Merthyr can achieve this Mam? I do.
Ah miss merthyr is back
I dont think you really understand what this is about deary
This post is just about statistics that point to trends, that actually helps tp highlight to people who can do something, the need to do something.
There are people paid to get solutions, like your Local Authority, your local AM,MP the civil servants at the Assembly.
You must think that Valleysmam is superwoman if she can sort out the problems that the Valleys have had for at least 30 years.
I guess your the one horse pony that stalks this blogger.
I wonder which politician and party you work for, do us all a favour ,go and do something useful.
Valleysmam is not on a downer on Merthyr , you are by showing that you really dont care about anything but singing your troll mantra
Thank you 'Working of Galon Uchaf' (or Valleys Mam!) for responding, even though, you continue to offer no solutions for Merthyr.
Please explain to your readers why, when Merthyr is thrown this lifeline of new jobs and a multi-million pounds investment (which would address ALL the economic you bleat on about) you are actually opposing it?
Your inability to articulate a coherent argument against such a great opportunity - other than post anonymous abuse (on your own blog) attacking the proponents of this unique proposal - speaks volumes.
I feel a letter to the Express coming on!
Dear Editor....
never mind one blog that is obviously getting under your bosses skin big time (like miss wagstaff), where are you and your bosses solutions to the problems such as high food and fuel bills, repossessions because of the Credit Crunch, the job losses, problems with ambulances and on and on that are affecting the welsh public, i notice you fail to mention any of that.
If your only solution to Merthyr job problems is a prison then the town is in bigger trouble than I thought.
Not more prejudice and self-interest from Merthyr's middle-class, surely???
We are in trouble precisely because of NIMBIES like yourself!
No amount of catwerwauling from the likes of you will hide the fact that we need these jobs and we should be fighting to get these jobs.
It's time we had some political leadership in Merthyr not this lily-livered hand-wringing.
There is a golden egg within our grasp and people like you are depriving US of the chance to pick ourselves up off the floor.
It's also time the Merthyr Express (who I know read this sorry excuse for a blog) started battling to bring this great opportunity to Merthyr Tydfil.
We need these jobs. We need this investment. We need voices on the side of the people for a change!
some one shoot that troll, VM may be you need to do some culling here.S/he is spoiling good posts
i agree. we dont want this prison in merthyr. let somewhere else have it!
may be its a good trick to deflect from the post itself and the seriousness of it.
Great post from Valleys Mam - Wales has fantastic assets, among them its people and universities.
Sadly, the Welsh Assembly Government has not pushed the University of Wales enough to focus on turning its discoveries and inventions into registered patents to spurn inward investment and spin-outs on a par with universities a fraction of the size of the University of Wales; there are universities in South East Asia based in former third world cities/nations that outperform the entire University of Wales several times over.
Prof. Brian Morgan (Director, Creative Leadership and Enterprise Centre, Cardiff School of Management) pointed to the low number of registered patents in an article in the Western Mail's 2008 'Who's Who' in Wales (pages 9-15).
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