Ford Bridgend: Beyond the factory gates

By Carole Green, Correspondent

As Ford workers come to terms with the news the engine plant is closing next year, Bridgend and the wider community will need to find new ways to replace the 1,700 jobs lost.

The closure is part of a trend which has seen Wales lose 13,000 manufacturing jobs over the last decade. Ford will leave a big gap to fill. Another 3,000 livelihoods depend on the car giant, which has pumped £3bn pounds into the local area over the last ten years. The vast site and its skilled workforce will be marketed worldwide - but does the answer for economic renewal lie closer to home?

I’ve been to Preston in Lancashire to find out how it’s leading its own recovery. Like many parts of Wales, one in three schoolchildren in Preston in 2012 were below the breadline. It had the highest suicide rate in England. As the recession hit, key investors pulled out of the city. At the same time, the local authority was facing unprecedented cuts to its budgets. The city had to use its own imagination and resources to save itself - and the Preston Model was born.

Read: Ford says employees 'did everything right' but 1,700 jobs go at Bridgend plant

The council leader says it’s common sense economics.

That's 1,600 jobs created not by a foreign inward investor, but by looking closer to home. The drive has been led by the public and not the private sector.

It’s all about procurement - where Preston spends its tens of millions of pounds of public money. So the goods and services its communities rely on every day are bought in from local firms. Where possible, public contracts are awarded locally too. Now there are signs the city is finding a new confidence.

The 'thinking and supporting local' approach means Kay Johnson's cafe is part of a rent-free council scheme for new co-operatives - businesses owned by their workers. They’re being encouraged to take root in the city centre. Kay's cafe goes further, sourcing all its ingredients on the doorstep. It's having a real impact - keeping wealth in Preston.

There’s still an appetite and a need for inward investment here, because Preston’s own resources can’t fill all the economic gaps. However, by keeping the focus local for the everyday things we need and use, more money stays in the city.

In Wales it has been called the Foundation Economy, covering food, retail, care and tourism. The idea is to work alongside - not replace - direct foreign investment. Preston’s next step is to establish a regional bank - here Wales is ahead, with the Development Bank Of Wales already up and running.

The Preston Model is not just about economics - it also asks questions around identity: who we are, what makes a place and how we shape our own future in the age of globalisation.

Preston’s a very ordinary place, but its champions say it’s now making extraordinary strides forward. Ruth Heritage was born and brought up here. She says it was a bleak place in the 1980s and like many youngsters she left and headed to London.

Ruth has come full circle back up that motorway. She’s now living in Preston and has founded They Eat Culture. She works with and in local communities, raising their voices, confidence and aspirations through grassroots art and culture.

Preston’s self-help plan was born out of necessity. What began as an economic survival strategy is now a new model all of its own. Preston doesn’t have all the answers, but some argue Bridgend and Wales could learn lessons from this northern trailblazer.

You can watch Wales This Week: Beyond the Factory Gates on Monday at 8:00pm on ITV Cymru Wales, or catch up on the ITV Wales programmes page.