Yesterday I caught up with chief executives and leaders from councils across Wales for this year’s WLGA Finance Seminar. It’s a really useful opportunity to get together and understand the position across Wales. Top of our agenda, of course, were our budgets and what they will look like in the coming financial year. We got an overview of the UK Government’s autumn statement, prompting a lively discussion about the challenges we all share in budget-setting. It is very clear we all face significantly rising demand for services at a time when our finances are being squeezed by issues like inflation while the economic outlook remains uncertain. CMT and Cabinet have put together our plans for next year but much will depend on what the Welsh Government says in its own budget statement, due in mid-December. I’ll keep you updated.
CMT this week considered a report from Rachael Davies, our head of HR&OD about our new duties under the Welsh Government’s new Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023. Social partnership is a collaborative approach where government bodies, employers and trade unions work together to address economic, social and workplace issues. The new law might sound a bit dry and high-level and, of course, we already have measures in place like the Joint Consultative Committee and wider engagement opportunities to ensure unions are actively involved. But this new duty offers an opportunity to extend this involvement into areas of policy and corporate planning and will be a pretty big change for all involved. My thanks to Rachael for her briefing and I will keep you informed of progress.
On Tuesday Swansea hosted the Green Economy Conference and Exhibition at Swansea Arena, organised by 4theRegion. We were partners in an event which brought together hundreds of individuals, organisations and businesses to showcase their sustainability efforts and share their enthusiasm for a greener economy. Events like these are important to our reputation as a council aiming to be net zero by 2030.
Congratulations – once again – to our team that delivered the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks regeneration project that included the Penderyn Whisky distillery. The project has now been declared the UK’s best regeneration and retrofit in the prestigious Constructing Excellence Awards 2024. It adds to the Welsh regional accolade and a whole range of other awards secured since its completion. Thank you to Tracy Nichols and the Economic Regeneration team that’s made the project possible, enhancing our reputation as a council that delivers.
Well done to our trading standards team who have in recent weeks secured convictions which have seen rogue traders sent to prison. You can read more here. The team’s success not only serves as a deterrent to others, but highlights to the public the significant role we play in keeping them safe.
Thank you also to our libraries staff, whose work sharing our treasures in its Tales from the Vaults initiative has been hailed by the British Film Institute as great practice other councils could learn from. Find out more about what they did here, to put us on the cultural map in this way.
And finally, congratualations to the culture, special events, city centre management and highways teams who delivered a brilliant, colourful and noisy Christmas Parade at the weekend. There was no shortage of praise from all quarters for the traditional festive curtain-raiser.
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