“They're more interested in making the backs of the buildings look nice for the ferries”

The Daily Post backs Enterprise Zone status for Holyhead

I was in Holyhead on Monday with Wales Office Minister, David Jones MP, to meet with local small business and shop owners to discuss the economic problems facing the town. The general consensus was that despite the millions which have been ploughed into Holyhead over the years, due to a lack of consultation with local residents and businesses (“they just do what they want to do”), and due to a lack of vision and direction in both WAG and the County Council, the economic fortunes of the town have declined rather than improved. This is certainly borne out by the fact that Holyhead now has the highest jobseekers to vacancy ratio in all of Wales. There was also great dissatisfaction that more had not been done to help two of the town’s largest employers, Anglesey Aluminium and Eaton Electric, which both closed within months of each other in 2009 losing 700 jobs between them – the eleventh hour offer of a £48m loan to Anglesey Aluminium was “too little, too late”.  In terms of attracting new businesses to replace them the feeling was that too much money and effort was being spent on brushing up the appearance of the place (“they're more interested in making the backs of the buildings look nice for the ferries”) but not enough was being done to proactively support the existing small businesses or attract new enterprises which should provide the beating heart of any town. Unsurprisingly the Council and many of its members came in for severe criticism.

There are of course no silver bullets for the economic problems being faced in Holyhead or, indeed, all over Ynys Môn. But one thing is certain: you cannot continue to do the same things and expect different outcomes. The time has come to try something radically different and that is why I have been pushing for Holyhead to become the first Enterprise Zone in Wales. Announced in last month’s Budget, 21 Enterprise Zones will be set up in England, with the closest one to us being in Wirral Waters, Birkenhead. As Economic Development is devolved in Wales, WAG has now received £65m as the ‘Barnett consequential’ of this policy and it will be up to the new Welsh Government to decide post May 5th how to use this money. I sincerely hope that WAG will give serious thought to introducing a similar Enterprise Zone policy here in Wales due to their terrific potential to help revive some of our most economically struggling areas – and to this end,  I’m delighted that the Daily Post has also come out in support of my calls for Holyhead to become Wales’ first Enterprise Zone (see image above).

In terms of the specifics of Enterprise Zones, the Welsh Conservatives would push for the following:

• tax breaks for both existing and new businesses – including the lifting of business rates and discussions with Westminster on the possibility of also obtaining corporation tax reductions
• simplified planning rules to assist businesses setting up or expanding
• the roll out of super-fast broadband

It is also important to note that the benefits of having an Enterprise Zone in Holyhead would not be just confined to Holyhead. As Ynys Môn’s largest town, it is in the interests of the Island as a whole to have a thriving, profitable and growing economy in Holyhead. Enterprise Zones have their critics, but quite frankly, its time to try something new and radical in Holyhead: to simply carry on tinkering around the edges will not change anything.