Last week we began to detail The Cardiff Capital Region ‘Five for Five’: the five key priority areas that will be hallmarks of CCR’s evolution over the next five years.

As we move out of the pandemic, it would be easy to talk change but unconsciously slip back into the ‘same old’. That is simply not an option for CCR; and even if it was, it wouldn’t be a particularly wise route to take. As we’ve seen in previous “Reimagining the Region “articles, the Pre-Covid CCR was a wonderful place to live and work for many; and a far-from-perfect-place for many others. A region characterised by an extraordinary history and huge potential for the future, with much to cherish and be proud of - and much to change and improve. CCR came into being to address the geographical inequalities, attract more of the ‘right’ inward investment, strengthen our foundational economy and make public investment work better right across our region. Those challenges still remain.    

As Cardiff Capital Region moves from a ‘City Deal’ towards a much broader and strategic approach based on the economic geography of the whole of South East Wales, our ‘Reimagining the Region’ series has already shown how strong foundations have been put in place, providing a robust platform to build inclusive growth right across the 10 unitary authorities that make up CCR.

As Cardiff Capital Region moves from a ‘City Deal’ towards a much broader and strategic approach based on the economic geography of the whole region, our ‘Reimagining the Region’ series has already shown how strong foundations have been put in place, providing a robust platform to build inclusive growth right across South East Wales. 

We begin our series with a look back on the journey made from the inception of the CCR, assessing the foundations put in place and looking at the key developments and progress made in those four extraordinary years …

With the first UK Government Gateway review successfully concluded and as Cardiff Capital Region starts to transition from a ‘City Deal’ towards a much broader strategic regional approach, we’ll be marking the occasion by running a special ‘Reimagining our Region’ series of articles over the next few weeks.