Plan to make Shropshire and Powys 'green economy trailblazers' moves forward after cabinet vote
Shropshire and Powys are among a group of border counties who have received £150m less than they should in devolved funding, a new report has claimed.
Over the past year a group of councils made up of Shropshire, Powys, Herefordshire and Monmouthshire have been drawing up formal working arrangements for a cross-border coalition arrangement between the authorities, known as the "Marches Forward Partnership".
The partnership was initially established in 2023, aimed at securing a bigger pot of development funding for the Marches region.
Now, a proposal document put before Shropshire Council's cabinet on Wednesday (March 5) sets out how the partnership will be lobbying for a £440m investment boost from parliaments in Westminster and Cardiff over the next 15 years.
The plan hopes to make the Marches region a "high-productivity rural, small town and city-based economy", as well as creating what it describes as a "green economy trailblazer region".
"The Marches area has not always received a strategic and evenly appointed allocation of funding for boosting economic outcomes. Over the last 15 years, we estimate our proportion of 'devolved' funding is short by around £150m for the size of our population, receiving 0.7 per cent of total national economic development funding for 1.1 per cent of the UK’s population," it said.
"To achieve our collective vision, ambition, and commitment to drive economic growth and prosperity across national boundaries, we are seeking a £440m real terms revenue and capital investment programme over the next 15 years, supported by £1.5m of capacity funding over the next three years, to set up Marches co-working, programme development and governance arrangements.
"The Marches is a fantastic place to live and work, with incredible heritage, history and breathtaking landscape and environment. However, as a collective, we are lagging behind the England and Wales economic outcome averages. Closing this gap would be worth over £3bn to the UK economy, boosting living standards for 750,000 people in the Marches."
As well as longer-term objectives, the plan sets out four immediate priorities including a "Marches Good Food Movement", which will create a pilot programme with food producers to market the region as a food and drink destination with high quality food culture.
The scheme will also oversee the development of a pioneering green finance scheme which it says will help respond to environmental challenges such as water quality, flood risk and water resource management and position the region as as a "leader in green growth".
As part of the proposition document supported by Shropshire Council's cabinet, governance arrangements for the fledgling partnership were confirmed as part of what Shropshire Council leader Lezley Picton described as "more formal" arrangements.
They included the establishment of a partnership board made up of executive officers from all four councils, with a "deliberately simple" structure.
"The Government's white paper has not helped us at all in working across the border between England and Wales, but going forward we're talking about monies going in and coming out so we need to have a more formal mechanism," said Councillor Picton.
