South Wales Evening Post - 3 September 2008
SWANSEA is one of the UK's least competitive cities at a time when many of the country's cities are experiencing a resurgence.
That is the finding of a study produced by the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff.
It found significant improvements among UK's cities and urban areas, particularly those in the North.
But Professor Robert Huggins, who devised and compiled the index, said: "Wales as a whole is lagging and within that there are certain issues over Swansea not developing as fast as certain other areas.
"Although there has been development, the pace of change is slower."
He added: "Within Wales there has been some fairly good development in Cardiff, but I don't think we have had a coherent plan to develop as a whole."
Some 400 localities were assessed, taking into account NVQ levels, business start-ups, economic activity rates and productivity.
Professor Huggins added: "I don't think Swansea is showing much in terms of improvement.
"We can look at workforce skills, and NVQ levels are at best static and business start-ups have declined slowly. And even though average earnings have gone up, they haven't risen as fast as other places. It shows, in a way, that other cities are growing faster."
Swansea was ranked 339th in the league table across the UK, below cities like Liverpool, Bradford and Plymouth.
But Swansea did outrank Sunderland, Stoke-on-Trent and Kingston upon Hull.
Professor Huggins added: "We haven't thought how we can move the whole country forward.
The Assembly hasn't really put in place a plan which has shown signs yet of rejuvenation."
Peter Birch, of Swansea Business Improvement District, and Bumper to Bumper, said he was "staggered" at the Professor's findings.
"I would have thought it was quite the opposite when you look at the progressive university we have and particularly the way we are reinvesting in the city centre and have a successful football team.
"The buzz in the air is that we are doing well," he said.
