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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Local Techniums make loss of £1.95 million since 2001
September 7, 2010 12:00 AM
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has called on the Welsh Government to take action on failing Technium projects in the Swansea Bay area.
New figures released by the Welsh Liberal Democrats have revealed that the Labour/Plaid government's flagship Technium projects have made massive losses. Freedom of Information requests have revealed a loss in excess of £1.95 million locally, £5.4 million across Wales since 2001.
The Technium scheme was a flagship government project founded in 2001 as an attempt to develop a series of sites where science and technology businesses could be nurtured. The overall loss masks huge losses for individual Techniums.
Since 2001/02 Swansea Technium 1 has lost £149,525, the Sustainable Technology Technium in Baglan, £278,781, ECM2 in Port Talbot £2.2 million, and the Sony Technium in Bridgend, £146,810. These have been offset by surpluses for Swansea Technium 2 of £430,839 and for the Digital Technium in Swansea University of £430,508.
Mr. Black, Liberal Democrat Shadow Finance spokesperson had raised this issue before with the Minister for Economy and Transport:
"In 2005 the Technium projects in my region had lost nearly £60,000 and I questioned their success, yet the Government continued to invest in the project, leading to this £1.95 million loss. The programme was intended to "develop the knowledge-driven economy" but many of the Technium centres have failed to deliver this.
"It is another example of the Labour / Plaid Government acting on a whim. I am pleased to say there are some Technium projects that are successful, namely those linked with Swansea University. These Centres have been developed as intended, with links to the University to foster innovation and skills. But in other cases, the Government have tried to replicate them without the links to university they need to thrive.
"There needs to be a reassessment of these projects and how the intellectual capital they produce is being used. If they are to deliver on the high value jobs we all want then there needs to be clearer links with local universities, more proactive use of patents to protect the work that is being done there and smarter use of the subsidy going into these facilities."
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