Ebbw Vale – employment change
an area affected by
deindustrialisation
Ask anyone in Wales what they know
about Ebbw Vale and it's almost
certain the answer will include the
word "steel."
Main
Steelworks
closed 1978 –
14000)
workers when
nationalised
in 1967
The tinplate works closed 2002
800 jobs lost (Secondary Industry / male)
Ebbw Vale – Festival Park Shopping
1990s
The WDA (Welsh Development Agency), local authorities and the
private sector spent £60million on converting the area from a wasteland
of spoil heaps into the Ebbw Vale Garden Festival.
Festival Park Factory Shopping Village is now located on this site.
Even now, after a reshaping and shrinking of the
industry, the Corus tinplate works looms large over the
community and is estimated to be worth £30m to the
local economy.
Corus
tinplate
works
closed
2002
A more depressing claim to fame is the town having the
highest unemployment rate in Wales.
Already 2,000 are looking for work and the problem is
set to get worse at a stroke, with the closure of its
steelworks.
INWARD INVESTMENT BY TNCs with
WDA support. 1980/90s
2005 - The town is already
suffering from the downturn
in manufacturing. A
worryingly high number
of local jobs - 40% depend on this sector twice the national
average.
Yuasa (Japan)
2003 – heavy duty
batteries
One of Blaenau Gwent's
biggest employers has
announced that it is shedding
up to 350 jobs.
Continental Teves which makes
brake calipers for the motor
The German-owned
company said low-volume industry is switching production
to Slovakia.
production for
manufacturers like Porsche
and Aston Martin will
remain in Ebbw Vale. This
will mean a total of 120 jobs
will remain in the area.
2006
Supermarkets
Part-Time / flexi
Open 24hours / 7days
Fast food
Home delivery
More women in
workforce
Devolution – Welsh Assembly Government
Ebbw Vale Enterprise Zone
(one of 7) 2013 – area of
Blaenau Gwent still needing
high level of WAG support. As a
Tier 1 area, companies in the
Zone can benefit from the
highest level of grant aid in the
UK.
PENN PHARMA – a
quaternary company.
30 years have been spent at the heart of the South Wales
Valleys where the enterprise continues to expand, as its
280 skilled staff serve the increasingly complex needs of
the world’s leading drug companies.
CONTINENTAL TEVES – a
German TNC – making
brake callipers – high
quality ‘lean’ business still
survives in EV – serving
luxury car brands – Bentley,
Jaguar, Land Rover
Continental Teves benefited from
working relationship with local
universities. For example, a project team
from the firm worked together with MBA
students from the University of South
Wales at Newport to source a supplier
for a new process to apply coating to
brake callipers. This ultimately led to a
cost saving of £100,000.
Having set up in Wales in 1974
restructuring the business in 2009 to focus on niche and high performance
products, turnover has doubled to £42m.
As part of this strategy, staff numbers have increased from approximately 100
in the downturn to 165, and are set to rise higher.
There are also plans to create an
international motor bike racing circuit
hosting MotoGP by 2015. This would
provide a major spur to the Enterprise
Zone project by creating a motorsport
centre of excellence
CIRCUIT OF WALES - £280
million
THE WORKS
The Vision: Out of
the demolition and
reclamation of the
iconic old steelworks,
Blaenau Gwent
County Borough
Council and the
Welsh Government
are working together
to create a new vision
for Ebbw Vale and
Blaenau Gwent.
The Masterplan proposes a mix of uses including the Learning Campus, Local
General Hospital, Leisure Centre and Sports Pitches, a Theatre, high quality offices
and around 500 homes.
Environmental improvements
Infrastructure improvements – dualling of Heads of the Valley Road
(A465T)from Swansea to Abergavenny.
REINTRODUCED
PASSENGER SERVICE
LINKING EV TO
NEWPORT and
CARDIFF
2012 - PLANS to bring the Ebbw Valley line to Newport would still need more
funding despite an announcement that it will be electrified.
This week Justine Greening, transport secretary of state, announced that
work to electrify the Ebbw Valley line is to be part of a £4.2 billion scheme of
railway investments.