Penyffordd councillor Alasdair Ibbotson told Flintshire County Council’s Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee that they should instead focus on promoting local businesses within Flintshire.
Despite Cllr Ibbotson, a member of Flintshire People’s Voice, claiming the £160m proposal to create a zone would not benefit local people however, the committee supported the investment zone plans.
The proposed investment zone covers three sites – The Deeside Gateway comprising of former RAF Sealand land around Deeside Industrial Park, Wrexham Industrial Estate and Warren Hall near Broughton, strategic land currently owned by the Welsh Government. It will offer tax benefits to advanced manufacturing businesses who establish their presence within it and create employment and training opportunities for highly skilled roles.
“There is no mention of improved wages and no mention of improved working conditions for working people in Flintshire,” argued Cllr Ibbotson. “There are significant tax handouts for businesses.
“Who benefits? Flintshire has an employment rate far below the Wales average and even further below the UK average. Who is going to fill these jobs?
“The kind of companies who are going here at those who are happy to move around when there’s tax incentives. they will disappear as soon as those tax incentives disappear.
“Small local businesses who make up the core of the local economy will suffer if we pass this. Big multinationals, owned by millionaires and billionaires who do not live in Flintshire, will benefit.”
Read more: Investment Zone to create over 6,000 jobs in Wrexham and Flintshire
Deputy leader of Flintshire County Council, Independent Cllr Richard Jones refuted his claims however, highlighting Flintshire’s history of skilled manufacturing.
“Investment of £160m over 10 years, the creation of 6,000 jobs, what’s not to like,” he said.
“Those are additional jobs, not displaced jobs as Cllr Ibbotson might have thought. They are high skilled jobs in manufacturing which this area has a history of.
“The education side through schools and colleges is important. Companies that move into the investment zone need to know that there’s a source of employees that they can tap into. But I’m wholly supportive of this, why wouldn’t you be?”
Under the proposals Flintshire and Wrexham will also be able to specify two areas within the zone where they can retain 50% of the business rates generated to re-invest in local services. Cllr Ibbotson remained unconvinced.
“If we want to build our local economy, we need to focus on promoting genuinely local businesses. Businesses that operate in Flintshire, that pay their taxes in Flintshire, that employ local people and in turn are owned by local people so that any profits stay within our local economy. That is how we build a brighter future for Flintshire.
“It’s already being done by trailblazing local councils including the Labour council in Preston. We can do the same here.”
Committee chairman Cllr Bill Crease, also deputy leader of the Independent group on Flintshire County Council, summed up his hopes for the project before the committee voted.
The former teacher, originally from Scotland, said: “I saw the Highlands and Islands Development Board almost half a century ago.
“I grew up in the desolation of the west of Scotland and the Highlands there. I saw what happened over a sustained period of time with the development of workforce, increasing skills, increasing disposable pay over an area that has historically been rural and disadvantaged.
“The idea of something similar potentially happening across North East Wales is quite exciting for me.”
Overall the committee carried the recommendations to support the investment zone plans by majority.