Plans were discussed yesterday (December 12) to bring more investment into the South West.

The Western Gateway Partnership, alongside Bristol & Bath Regional Capital (BBRC), brought together local leaders, businesses and financial services organisations in Westminster to discuss new work to attract investment into the area.

Currently London receives nearly half of the total investment that goes into UK companies from other countries at 43%. Wales receives only 2.9%, whilst the South West of England receives 5%.

The Western Gateway area, from Swansea to Swindon, brings in more overseas investment than the rest of the South West and Wales together, but is still £56bn behind the UK average.

Plans for work to bridge this gap were announced at a launch event in the House of Commons, which was supported by Secretary of State for Wales, David TC Davies MP, and hosted by Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and MP for Bristol North West, Darren Jones MP.

Darren Jones MP said: "We have to unlock investment from private capital if we are going to get Britain building again and our economy back on track."

The event saw around 80 national and regional businesses, leaders and policy makers from the areas of net zero, devolution, levelling up and finance. The focus was on examining the best models for getting investment from both the public and private sectors.

The Western Gateway Partnership launched new research to understand where the area could be doing more to attract private sector investment to fund businesses, innovation and infrastructure. This work will make recommendations to government by next summer on how to deliver greater levels of investment into the area to help create new economic growth.

John Wilkinson, director of the Western Gateway, said: "South Wales and Western England is home to incredible skilled and creative communities with world-leading manufacturing, universities and high-tech clusters across engineering, cyber and low carbon energy.

"We believe we have the potential to become a much more significant channel for investment to support economic growth. That's why the Western Gateway is launching new research to understand where these investments gaps are, and which are the most pressing. We want to bridge these gaps and deliver concrete proposals which can achieve our area's full potential."

Ed Rowberry, chief executive of BBRC, said: "Locally-led practical action and catalytic investment are key to delivering impactful social and environmental outcomes. We've proven that a small amount of seed funding can go a long way - for example, Bristol City Council's £4m commitment into our impact investment fund, City Funds, has unlocked £34m total investment in SMEs in the region.

"By working alongside Western Gateway and others, we hope to scale our model to unlock further investment in the region and tackle key issues such as housing and the climate crisis."