I had a couple of phonecalls yesterday suggesting that the Director General for the Department of Economy and Transport was about to stand down from his position and was being moved sideways to oversee a "special project".
There have been no official confirmations yet from the Welsh Assembly Government but given the way the jungle drums are beating loud and clear, there is little reason to believe that this rumour is not true.
Given the criticisms that have been levelled at the senior management within the Department of Economy and Transport, including this article on Saturday, this revelation would not be a surprise.
It may even justify awarding Andrew Davies the AM of the Year title at Monday's Welsh Political Awards!
One can only hope that Ieuan Wyn Jones now has the courage and foresight to avoid recruiting the successor from the rest of the senior management team in his department and will go out to open advert to fill one of the most important jobs in the Welsh civil service.
Unfortunately, I very much doubt that will be the case.
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But it looks like IWJ will not go outside for a new head of the economy department.
Let’s hope this isn’t just a placatory ‘cop-out’. If a ship hits an iceberg: it’s no good just sacking the captain and saying, “We’ve done all we can”… you still have to stop the ship from sinking!
In fact, I’ve heard that James Cameron, the Hollywood Director, is so fascinated by the future of the Welsh economy, that he has approached Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to star in a new movie about it.
Any suggestions for a title?
Good thing you didnt put money on it Dylan
This has to be the most arrogant self congratulatory event I have ever heard of; when Wales has gone backwards in terms of education, health and economic development standards since it was elected.
If Fleet Street was interested they would be taking the p***.
Since who was elected?
You might have a point about the awards but in absolute terms not all of those standards have gone backwards.
He lost respect of the business community too as he treated Business Wales with contempt, refusing to attend meetings to explain the scrapping of the M4 relief road and would not answer emails or request when he was in charge of the national transport strategy.
I hear he did not go down well at the first Council for Economic Renewal last week (the new BPC/Economic Summit structure). There was rumour about the future of Gareth Hall at the meeting as he did not speak and James Price did all the talking.
Tracey Burke is in a far better position to take over than James. Business reps do not like him or trust him. IWJ should not trust him either as he obviously disagrees with him. A civil servant should not have this much power. Andrew Davies' warning could be true again. Gareth Hall, despite the fact I think he's completely ineffective, is better than James Price. God help us if he gets promoted on a permanent basis.
The problem is the effect on gearing, making it even more difficult (if that were possible) for companies to obtain subsequent bank loans for expansion.
For some start-up companies bank loans and grant used to form a popular mix of funding. Probably not any longer.
Most loan risk assessments will take place centrally in London - not in Wales. Their computerised risk scoring systems will not be capable of taking in to account the softer nuances of the new ERP funding.
Some of the funding for business support, such as R&D grants (which incidentally will now be repayable in Wales but not in England where they are also available), is that they are European funded. Repayment - if after the end of the particular tranche of Convergence funding - would therefore be back to Europe, not to WAG.
If there are issues with the repayable grant, then blame falls fairly and squarely on the civil servants in DE&T who failed to examine the implications of the changes and advise the Minister accordingly.
Unfortunately WAG does not appear to have a capable Sir Humphrey able and willing to gently persuade the Minister that he has no clothes.
I am not going to stop people commenting but there is a line which should not be crossed. I am happy for people to give their opinion but no personal comments please.
Having known James since he was in the WDA Economics Department, it will be interesting to see what sort of job he makes of this temporary position. Obviously having an economist rather than a town planner in charge of the economy will result in a very different style.
However, I still believe that WAG should go to open advert. If none of them are better than James, then at least he will be in a far stronger position than he currently finds himself in.
James Price and I have always had a cordial relationship and it is worth noting that he was not part of the original ERP team but was brought in after the strategy was written to try and implement the strategy.
In that respect, he is doing his job, but some have told me that if he had been involved from the beginning, then at least we would have had some economic coherence throughout the document.
Perhaps, unlike his predecessor, he may be willing to have an open discussion about the ERP and its faults with organisations such as the FSB.
Anyway, we shall wait and see.
Finance wales did offer interest free loans as part of their spin-out programme a number of years ago but I have never seen anything else in this area.
I shall do some digging.
The first semi/part repyable grant was offered (to one of my cases) in 2004. I have fought every single one of my cases against such a policy, since.
One of the reasons being that the trigger point for repayment was when the company had hit a sales target. Yes very unscientific.
Most clients were very uncomfortable having to repay over and above the debt they had already secured for the project.
To date, sources tell me not one single repayment has been made (that's in 6 years).
I'm tempted to ask (publicly) how many cases have WAG turned round since 1 September i.e. start of D&T finance, because I know there haven't been many.
As you predicted Dylan most SMEs don't fit the 6 sectors.
Will be interesting to see what they think will be their offer to SMEs as a result of the ERP.
From what I know, these repayable grants will only be offered to businesses in the six sectors. Farce!