Speaking to the CBI Wales North Wales dinner she said she would chair a new national Jobs Council
First Minister Eluned Morgan said the Development Bank of Wales should be empowered, suggesting a significant increase in its financial firepower to support the growth of SMEs, while also committing to streamlining business support.
Addressing the North Wales dinner of employers body CBI Wales, the First Minister said that if still in office after May’s Senedd Election, she would seek to secure a fairer Welsh share of innovation and research council funding from publicly funded bodies such as research councils and Innovate UK, although she did not indicate how this would be achieved. She also dismissed calls for creating a new version of the Welsh Development Agency.
It was the late Rhodri Morgan, when First Minister, who abolished the arm’s-length Welsh Government WDA back in 2004. While at the time of its demise it had become over-bloated, with more than 1,000 staff and arguably too many business support strands, it remains one of the most recognisable Welsh brands, particularly overseas.
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Plaid has committed to effectively establishing a new streamlined version of the WDA through a national development agency, which will take on Welsh Government business support and inward investment functions. What is not yet clear is the relationship between a new agency -which would seek to attract the best talent from the private sector -and the Development Bank of Wales.
In rejecting calls for a new WDA, the First Minister said: “Wales may give its support to others – those who offer plans for more plans, delay, duplication, indecision and commissions. Also for a new WDA, but with no plan for what it will do, nor the money to make that happen.”
On the Welsh Government’s business support regime, which includes its outsourced Business Wales offer and its wholly-owned development bank, she said: “We will empower the Development Bank of Wales even further. It has already loaned over £1bn and helped deliver tens of thousands of jobs. We will cut down on business bureaucracy by streamlining support and carry out a root-and-branch review of business rates to make them fairer for all.”
In the last few months, the development bank has extended its services so that it can now offer loans to farm businesses.
She did not give any indication as to how the development bank would be “empowered”, but one route would be through securing investment mandates from pension funds, potentially via the British Business Bank, and increased use of UK Treasury-funded financial transactions capital, which has supported development bank lending.
According to a recent report from Martin Broogaard and David Phillips of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Welsh Government received £3.4bn (in real terms) in financial transactions capital between 2012–13 and this year. Of this, 80% will have to be repaid to the UK Government, while the remainder can be recycled indefinitely into further loans as repayments are made.
The report adds: “Current plans imply an additional £600m of funding between 2026–27 and 2029–30, but changes in rules mean that this can all be recycled into further loans in the future. This change will enable the Welsh Government to make increasingly large loans over time to the private sector (albeit subject to state aid rules).”
On productivity and research funding, Ms Morgan said: “Productivity sits at the core of the Wales Growth Plan, backed by £500m to support innovation, adoption of new technologies and business expansion. Our productivity rates are increasing more quickly than the UK’s, but we acknowledge that we are starting from a lower base. We will continue to work closely with the UK Government, providing the stable political landscape you need to make investment decisions.
“The UK Government has already committed £14bn for a pipeline of rail projects. I will push to secure Wales’s fair share of the UK’s investment in R&D, which will be essential for those productivity gains.”
The First Minister said her administration has listened to the concerns of business that it requires a planning system that does not deter investment. She added: “We acted, and Wales now has some of the fastest decisions on major energy infrastructure in the UK, with almost two dozen clean energy projects approved since I became First Minister.
“My challenge for the next government has been clear: to make Wales the fastest place in the UK to get planning permission, and if we are leading the next government, we will introduce new degree apprenticeships in planning.”
She also committed to implementing a new Welsh industrial strategy aligned with that of the UK Government. She added: “I am a First Minister who is prepared to choose, to focus and, where necessary, to say no.
“We know we can do more to help business grow much further, especially in advanced manufacturing, renewable and clean energy, digital and AI-driven industries, life sciences and the creative industries. I will personally chair a new national Jobs Council. It will bring together business, unions, the skills sector and government to drive good jobs across every part of Wales.”
Russell Greenslade, director of CBI Wales, said: “The CBI North Wales business dinner showcased the incredible businesses that are contributing to Wales’ impressive economic growth story.
“The First Minister rightly focused on the region’s enterprising firms, our green growth opportunities, and a higher education sector that works in partnership with business to support young people into careers and close the skills gap.
“Long-term sustainable growth depends on the Welsh and UK governments continuing to work in partnership with North Wales businesses.”







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