News / birmingham
Call for Bristol and Cardiff to join forces
George Ferguson has called for Bristol and Cardiff to work together to attract jobs and investment from the “overheating” London area.
Speaking at a conference in Wales yesterday, the mayor said there was an opportunity for the two cities to set aside competition between them and create “a really sustainable city region”.
He said such a region would be an economic power on a par with some of the larger English cities, such as Manchester and Birmingham.
“We need to work together as a pair of city regions,” Ferguson said. “We’re open to that conversation, how as two core cities we can work together to create a greater pull than if we worked separately.”
He said that opportunities for collaboration could lie in areas such as transport and energy.
“Instead of competing for every means of transport we must create a pull to the west that competes with the pull from London to the north,” he said.
“We have a huge common interest in energy – probably the best opportunities for renewable energy outside Scotland. Marine energy in the Severn and the Bristol Channel is a huge opportunity.”
Last year, cabinet member Gus Hoyt told Bristol24/7 that tentative discussions had already begun with his Welsh counterparts about the introduction of ‘tidal lagoon’ technology, to harness the tidal energy of the Severn.
The discussions came after a bid to build a multi-billion-pound barrage across the river was rejected by the government, following environmental and economic concerns.
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