[Economics] ‘Green shoots’ or coalmining past? Welsh town reacts to Labour and Reform’s visions for future

[ThunderStorm.]

 

almost five years ago. “There were lots of men and women working there at the end.”

During its 40 years of operations, workers at Bridgend Ford produced 22m engines for Ford, Volvo and Jaguar cars, before it closed quietly in September 2020 during ongoing Covid restrictions.

Debbie’s husband was one of 1,700 people who worked for the biggest employer in the town, located between Cardiff and Swansea, when the factory’s closure was announced in 2019. After about 30 years of service, he took early retirement in his late 50s when he received his redundancy payment.

At the time, many other Ford workers pinned their hopes on taking their skills to a car plant planned for a neighbouring industrial estate by the chemicals company Ineos, where it intended to build its Grenadier 4x4 vehicle. However, the company owned by billionaire Brexit-backer Sir Jim Ratcliffe subsequently cancelled the development, opting to build the “British” vehicle in France.

“Ford workers still meet up,” says Debbie, highlighting the ongoing feeling of community. However, the closure led to the workforce scattering to various other employers – including carmaker Aston Martin’s plant at nearby St Athan – while others retrained.

“Welsh cloud region”

Coming up for five years later, the Ford site is still empty, but an industry of the future has big plans.

The US-based datacentre company Vantage bought the land for a reported £27.5m in 2024, the biggest industrial transaction in south Wales last year. In recent weeks it has submitted a planning application to the council to build a huge datacentre complex on the site, representing a multibillion-pound investment.

“We recognise the importance of industry in Bridgend,” says Vantage in its application, stating that the cluster of 10 datacentres will “lay the foundation for future prosperity and regional economic regeneration”.

Future prosperity may, however, be some way off. Subject to gaining planning approval, Vantage intends to start construction early next year, and will build the complex over three phases up to 2040.

Once operational, it is pledging 600 full-time jobs on site, with a further 350 in the supply chain. It says the average salary of Vantage employees is £75,000, more than double the average salary in Bridgend, or Wales.

The company, backed by a consortium of investors including DigitalBridge Group, Silver Lake, Australian Super and others already operates one datacentre 30 miles east along the M4 motorway at Newport and has received planning permission for another in the Vale of Glamorgan. Vantage writes in its planning statement to the council that these three locations would “form the cornerstone of a Welsh cloud region”.

A company spokesperson said its expansion in south Wales was linked to “many factors … from the availability of land, power and skilled labour to the support of the local councils and national government, and customer demand”.

The company also estimates the development will help the town by generating £8.3m a year in business rates for the local authority, although in Wales these are pooled between councils and distributed centrally.

More money for the area would clearly be welcomed by locals, many of whom bemoan the state of public services.

On a sweltering weekday morning, groups of retired women are dodging soaring temperatures inside Bridgend’s Aroma cafe. Many are former colleagues meeting for regular coffee catch-ups, where the lack of local public transport or the disappointing state of Bridgend’s town centre with many vacant stores are common themes.

“It’s all right if you vape, or want a Turkish barber,” says Susan, sitting at one of the tables. “You don’t come into town if you want an outfit.”

Home of heavy industry

Many in Bridgend feel they have heard promises from large companies before.

While the town itself was never home to heavy industry, the surrounding region relied on it, and the Tata steelworks at Port Talbot is just 14 miles up the road. When Ford opened in 1980, the area was already home to dozens of car parts companies and it was hoped the automotive sector would take the place of a declining coal industry, which employed 250,000 in Wales at its peak.

Significant numbers of Welsh miners took part in the 1984-85 miners’ strike, led by Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers. While the action ultimately failed to prevent pit closures, it left a lasting legacy in Wales’s coalmining heartlands.

In the aftermath of the strike, Wales had some success in attracting foreign investment, often to Bridgend, helped by its proximity to the M4. However, many locals can reel off a list of the large multinationals that have come and gone, including LG and Bosch.

While Ford’s closure did not cause a rise in unemployment in Bridgend, where it remains about 3.5%, according to official figures, the economic inactivity rate – measuring people neither in work nor looking for a job – has climbed 6% since the pandemic. While this picture is repeated across the UK since Covid, the rate in Bridgend stands at 30.6%, significantly higher than the British average of 21%.

The main political parties are looking for ways to tackle persistent economic problems, but have differing views on how best to achieve it.

Reform UK is hoping to capitalise on voters’ dissatisfaction, in a town that voted 54.6% for leave in the Brexit referendum, at a time when it is setting out its stall in Wales before next May’s elections for the Welsh parliament.

“The town centre is lacking vibrancy,” says Caroline Jones, who hopes to be selected as Reform’s candidate for the Senedd for Bridgend. . Recalling a busier time, when the high street was home to more shops and bank branches, she says: “Our aim is to enhance town centres, to bring local employment and to level up the playing field.”

Jones, who previously served as the Senedd member for south west Wales for Ukip and as an independent, was Reform’s candidate for Bridgend in last year’s general election, coming second to Labour with a 19% share of the vote.

“I want to see industry and manufacturing brought back into our area, which obviously needs a lot of planning,” she adds.

It is unclear how Reform intends to attract this investment, and many of the policies Jones and the party are proposing – including lowering corporation tax or raising the income tax threshold to £20,000 – are not devolved powers and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of the Senedd.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/19/welsh-voters-labour-reform-bridgend-ford-plant