Western Gateway making an impact during Party Conference Season 2023

Over the past few weeks, our team has been working to support leaders from across our area at the three major political party conferences in our area.

In Bournemouth, Manchester and Liverpool, our panels have been drawing together business, leaders and academics to discuss how South Wales and Western England can work together to ensure we can power the UK’s transition to Net Zero and create new opportunities for our communities.

Together, we want to use our combined size to harness the strengths we share and unblock the barriers to achieving our potential to add a further £34billion to the UK economy. 

Across all parties, our leaders were able to send a strong united message to our representatives in Westminster that we have a credible offer across our area and we are ready to work together to deliver.

Liberal Democrats

On Tuesday the 26th, the team were in Bournemouth for the Liberal Democrat Party Conference.  There was standing room only at the conference with one of the busiest fringe events of the day.

Wera Hobhouse MP for Bath, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Climate and Transport, Cllr Claire Young, Western Gateway board member and Leader of South Gloucestershire Council, and Cllr Max Wilkinson, Cheltenham Borough Council Cabinet member for the Economy, all took to the stage alongside our Deputy Director, James Cooke, to discuss how the partnership can deliver opportunity and clean energy for the area.

Each of the panel highlighted how the partnership can help power cross party commitments to reach net zero and build on our area’s strengths.  Cllr Wilkinson highlighted the importance of the area’s world leading strengths in cyber for protecting a future net zero energy grid. 

Wera Hobhouse pledged her support for the partnership and its ability to build consensus for a long term net zero vision.

Conservative

The next week, we were in Manchester at Conservative Party Conference.  Early in the morning, we brought together David TC Davies MP, Secretary of State for Wales, and Chris Skidmore MP, Chair of the UK Net Zero Review, alongside our Vice Chair and leader of Gloucestershire, Cllr Mark Hawthorne, and Katie Roscoe from Airbus.

Our all-star panel was there to make the case for a why a cross border, cross party partnership was so crucial for the long term success of both England and Wales.

I asked the Secretary of State about his support for the Western Gateway’s ambitions for rail through its 2050 rail vision to which he replied: “The one I think is most important is the freight line between Cardiff and Bristol...  This is exactly the sort of thing where I think the offices of the Secretary of State for Wales and Western Gateway can work together with DfT and the Treasury to say look, there is a project here that is relatively cheap in rail terms which can deliver obvious benefits for the area.”

Chris Skidmore MP said: “When we see what has happened with the Western Gateway, that has attracted investment.  We have the Bristol and Bath Science Park in my constituency, over the last 13 years I’ve seen the National Composites Centre and just last week we were launching the Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion which will be the first place to start manufacturing its own Green Hydrogen in the region.  The Western Gateway has been a pioneer and also deserves the opportunity to lead by having the powers that it needs to push forward on these advanced technological approaches.”

Labour

A week later, leaders gathered in Liverpool for the Labour Party Conference. 

The event demonstrated the full scope of the Western Gateway with local leaders, politicians, academics and business all represented on the panel.  Led by Cllr Huw Thomas, leader of Cardiff City Council, the event also featured, Cllr Jim Robbins, newly elected leader of Swindon Borough Council, Professor Evelyn Welch, Vice Chancellor of Bristol University, and Ralph Windeatt from AB Ports.

The event also featured speeches from Baroness Debbie Wilcox of Newport and Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol. “What we’ve got with the Western Gateway is a real opportunity to give the economy a boost. It’s important to have a joined up Government, joined up engagement and joined up countries, because the Western Gateway has so much potential.” Says Baroness Debby Wilcox.

The discussion was framed around the need for private and public partnership in order to deliver on Labour’s manifesto pledges. The conversation also touched on a wide range of topics, from the area’s prime opportunity to harness renewable energy for the UK to the importance of better connecting the area through rail infrastructure.