Yesterday’s Cabinet meeting was one of the busiest there’s been for a long time. It covered a range of things that are going to affect us all in the coming months and years such as next year’s budget, updated HR policies, the future of the Civic Centre and our Placemaking Strategy.
The Placemaking Strategy approved by Cabinet yesterday sets out our vision to influence the look and feel of the city centre in the coming years. The city centre is the engine room of our local economy and central to our ambition for the city as a whole as a place to live, work, visit and be proud of. The previous city centre framework shaped the work over the last 10 years and the new strategy’s impact will be felt for decades to come, so it’s important everyone has their say when consultation starts and we get it right. My thanks to Gail Evans in our regeneration team who has led on this vital piece of work.
A key part of that overall vison for the City is the future of the Civic Centre and you have seen the recent engagement on the draft proposals for that exciting project which Cabinet also considered yesterday. I’ll keep you posted on its continuing implications for those still working at the Civic Centre and our wider staff community in the weeks ahead.
It will have been hard to miss media this week reporting our decision to take legal action about the future of the Ospreys and safeguarding professional rugby in our region. We’ve acted because we’ve had no choice. Professional regional rugby in our area is an essential part of our economy and regeneration vision for Swansea. Should the WRU and Y11 go ahead with their plan, it will damage that vision, undermine our local economy and our communities’ sporting and cultural aspirations too. Feedback so far shows strong public support for what we are doing. I’ll keep you posted.
CMT this week reviewed our health and safety strategy and action plans and looked at what’s coming in the next couple of years. They’re important documents designed to keep staff safe in their roles, promote a culture of safety and support our teams in areas like occupational health. The next step is to continue to discuss the reports with the unions at JCC before going to Cabinet for final approval. Yesterday, Cabinet also approved two updated HR policies on flexible retirement and recruitment and selection, which you can find here and here. These policies aim to manage our workforce in a way that makes the most of your skills and abilities, improve succession planning and recruit and retain the staff we need to deliver modern services to our residents.
Ensuring our HR policies continue to be fit for purpose are an essential part of that story. So too is our commitment to find more innovative ways to bring people into our Council and to recruit and train apprentices to be the next generation of our workforce. That’s why I’m pleased to be promoting a new round of webinars put together by our HR team in collaboration with Gower College Swansea. Over the last few years, we’ve recruited more than 180 apprentices across a whole range of different fields. They repeatedly demonstrate what a great investment they are – often in hard-to-fill roles. My thanks to them and to the HR team for setting up the webinars and would urge all managers to take the opportunity to find out a little more.
A similar success story is the progress we’ve made using our AI tool Microsoft Copilot across many of our services. Ness Young, our director for corporate services, is heading to a UK Microsoft conference next week to showcase our reputation as a leading local authority in Wales for adopting AI. It’s not just that the tool helps save time, it’s also that the time saved has allowed teams – social services is a good example – to focus even more effectively on their main task supporting residents in our communities.
And finally, as mentioned earlier, Cabinet agreed a series of 2026/27 budget reports yesterday, including our main revenue and capital spending budgets and similar reports for the Housing Revenue Account. The reports now go to Full Council on March 5 for debate and a final decision. As always, I’m grateful to you for your participation in the consultation and to Ben Smith, Sarah Willis and Simon Arthurs in finance for supporting us through the process.
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