Rivalries in south east Wales are holding back change and need to be buried, Rhys David argues

The nature and the scope of the relationship that should prevail between Cardiff and its hinterland is one of the great unresolved issues within the Welsh polity. It involves at one level the physical boundaries of the various local government and other authorities governing the area. Is Greater Cardiff, to use that taboo term, Cardiff and the Valleys, Cardiff and the Vale, or Cardiff, the Vale and the Valleys?

At another level what should the responsibilities of those authorities be and at which tiers should they be vested? Even more importantly where within a more co-ordinated region should scarce resources best be directed to ensure the greatest prosperity for all?

These are all important issues open to debate but, as a recent IWA conference Getting Ahead Together: Connecting Cardiff and the Valleys, made clear the time has now come to resolve matters and take action. Old boundaries have now become completely permeable.  Previously vibrant communities are no longer self-sufficient as they once were when jobs were close at hand. Large numbers now travel daily across the region to where the employment, the housing and the retail and leisure facilities are. In practice, if not in form, the city region is already here.

How much better therefore to plan for the allocation of resources on this much wider basis, so that important decisions on where housing would be best placed, on how most efficiently to deal with transport provision and waste management, how best to ensure south east Wales is a strong contender for economic development projects and how it makes the most of its tourist potential.

This is already being done in Scotland where the reality of city regions has been recognised. Across the world, too, some of the most successful cities such as Manchester, Stuttgart, and Vancouver – all of which were highlighted at the conference – are those that have managed to put aside local rivalries and work and plan together, bringing tangible economic benefits to a wide population.

Yet if Wales is to go down this route – probably in Cardiff first  but later in other parts of the country – there has to be buy-in from all concerned and not the residual feeling that this is just the capital on another aggrandising trip. In Manchester this has happened. The spokesman for the Manchester “brand” is now as likely to come from Wigan or Bury as from the city itself.

We need to reach the same degree of consensus in south-east Wales so that someone from Nantymoel or Abertysswg can feel as confident about projecting the Cardiff region as a Cardiff & Co ambassador. For this to happen everyone in the region must feel – and see tangible evidence – that they, too, will benefit from promoting the Cardiff brand.

The problems in parts of the region, as we all know, are chronic and have responded only partially to countless previous initiatives. This is no time, therefore, to get bogged down in new local government structures. The solutions must instead be practicable and capable of swift introduction, and this is the challenge the city region task and finish group under Elizabeth Haywood set up by business and enterprise minister Edwina Hart must rise to.

Fortunately, there is one project in south-east Wales on which there is already widespread agreement and around which the region as a whole could coalesce to make a strong case to the UK Government. Electrification of the Cardiff suburban railway network – from Ebbw Vale in the East to Maesteg in the West could in itself help to invigorate south-east Wales in a way no previous public expenditure has managed.

The relevant local authorities, transport groups, the Welsh Government, and business organisations throughout the region need to come together now to create a new overarching structure that will make achievement of this goal a priority and an inevitability.

December 1st 2011