It seems that the Welsh Governmett may have had a reason for being reluctant to provide information on Wales’ seven Enterprise Zone as it seems they in total have since their inception to March 2014, 779 jobs were created either through direct financial support or through wider Welsh Government assistance in the Deeside Enterprise Zone, with a further 2,484 safeguarded.
The data has been published after the Welsh Government was forced to by the Information Commissioner.
According to the statistics, the Deeside Enterprise Zone has created the most jobs, with hundreds of jobs also created at the zones in Anglesey and Cardiff.
The zones with the fewest jobs created so far are St Athan and Snowdonia.
Since their launch in 2012, 2,065 jobs have been created in the seven Enterprise Zones – which offer firms which choose to locate in them incentives and government support.
Naturally economy minister Edwina Hart this week warned the Senedd of the “danger of league tables” and said she was happy with the pipeline of jobs coming through.
According to the Wasting Mule
"The information was only released after the Information Commissioner found that the Welsh Government had “incorrectly withheld” it from Plaid Cymru, giving officials a 35-day deadline to provide a breakdown of jobs created and retained in each enterprise zone.Plaid economy spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth quizzed the economy minister in the Senedd last Wednesday, saying the figures showed some of the zones are doing better than others. He said that the Cardiff zone saw 465 jobs safeguarded or created at a cost of £22.9m – “a cost per job of some £44,000”.He said that was “significantly higher” than the £10,000 to £12,000 that civil servants have been aiming for".
But Ms Hart told Mr ap Iorwerth that she was “very disappointed” at the decision the Information Commissioner had taken.
She said:
“Zone-by-zone comparisons are unhelpful and misrepresent economic priorities and actions unique to each zone in their delivery plan.
“As you know, that is the view of my enterprise zone chairs, and my views haven’t changed.”
: “I’m content with the pipeline of jobs, and I think they are proving good value for money... The danger of league tables and information like this is that it leads to the type of questions you’re asking”.
Mr ap Iorwerth said:
“All the Welsh Government needed to do was to provide context alongside the jobs figures with clear information detailing the differences between the zones.
“But they chose to operate in a secretive manner and come up with lame excuses for not releasing information.”
It is appalling that our Government wil not tell us the details of their ventures so we can see for ourselves whether for instance the Cardiff zone with 465 jobs safeguarded or created at a cost of £22.9m – “a cost per job of some £44,000”. was a succesful way of improving employment.
How many Remploy Factories in Wales and how many Jobs saved or even created if a similar amount of Money had gone into helping them to become cooperatives ?
The Enterprise Zone rubbish was more or less forced on Wales by the Westminster Government and is more about spin giving the impression both Government being innovative (Enterprise being a magical word) whilst simpler projects like helping to form cooperatives could create or safeguard more jobs for less expenditure and totally benefit the workers and their communities rather than some Multi-National who will still up sticks after a few years when the grants run out.
Enterprise Zones it seems are there to make the Government (in Wales or Westminster) look good and if they don't they wil try and make sure we donlt get to here about it.
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