Call for council review of economy
Calls have been made for a “structured sector by sector” review to understand the Powys economy.
At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Economy Residents and Communities scrutiny committee Councillor Ian Harrison noted that there was little in the future meetings timetable to discuss developing the Powys economy.
He said: “Can I ask the committee to do a structured review sector by sector of what’s going on in our economy.
“We might want to set up a working group just to consider the different elements of our economy.
“It’s such a vast area, we need to break it down into bite size chunks have a very critical review of which policies are working and which are not.”
Cabinet member for economic development, Councillor David Selby said: “The economy is almost everything we do in some way or another.
“I’m wondering whether the way of dealing with it is with a member development session that briefs all members on how the economy works.”
He explained that there were many different strands and links between the council, UK and Welsh Government that manifest in schemes or bodies such as the Mid-Wales Growth Deal, Shared Prosperity Fund and Business Wales.
Mr Selby said: “At the day we can talk about the issues that affect the county and scrutiny may decide to home in on different areas for example tourism or agriculture.”
Committee chairwoman Councillor Angela Davies asked if Mr Harrison would be happy with Mr Selby’s suggestion.
Mr Harrison said: “It seems to be a reasonable way forward.”
He then stressed the need to understand how resilient the Powys economy is following all the changes that have happened at UK and Welsh Government that have affected.
He added: “I’d certainly be very interested to see what the background is and then it leads to the question, is Powys County Council doing enough in terms of its economic development planning?”
Mr Selby told the committee he would talk to staff and start organising the event.
