Wales, a devolved nation of the United Kingdom (UK), has placed great emphasis on delivering inclusive growth to enhance the well-being of its citizens across all four of its regions. However, it faces a number of challenges in doing so. A key challenge is boosting productivity growth, which is below the UK average, with wide and persistent disparities across its regions. Compounding this are major governance and funding changes that continue to unfold. The end of the UK's Shared Prosperity Fund in March 2025 – designed to replace European Union funding post-Brexit – coupled with relatively high inflation, create uncertainties around future public investment for regional and local development. The addition of the Corporate Joint Committees (CJCs) to the regional governance landscape creates further uncertainty as stakeholders adapt to the changes these structures bring.

The aftermath of Brexit, the global upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and inflationary and budgetary pressures have compelled Wales to re-evaluate its approach to regional development. Wales is increasingly taking a regional perspective – considering how government policy and actions affect its four economic regions – to help confront regional inequalities and foster well-being across its territory. The Welsh economy faces a sizeable productivity gap with the UK average and substantial, persistent differences across Welsh regions. Between 2011 and 2021, the productivity level of the South East region of Wales has consistently been more than 30% higher than that of the Mid Wales region (measured in gross value added per hour worked). The 2020 OECD report The Future of Regional Development and Public Investment in Wales, United Kingdom provides recommendations to help boost productivity across Welsh territories, focusing on enhancing transport performance, building workforce skills and investing in research and development.

This chapter describes how Wales, United Kingdom, adopted a regional lens to help the Welsh Government, local governments and the regional Corporate Joint Committees (CJCs) better assess and address regional development needs. As Wales navigates a turbulent landscape for regional development and public investment, the regional lens promises to help national and local governments do more with less: optimising scarce resources, taking advantage of economies of scale and reducing transaction costs. This chapter uses labour productivity, labour market, environmental and cultural data to illustrate how larger-scale regional insights can guide effective policy and investment, highlighting the importance of evidence-based planning in achieving targeted and impactful public investment and regional development initiatives.

Successfully embedding a regional lens in policy making entails articulating the long-term needs and ambitions of Welsh regions and collaborating across different policy areas within the Welsh Government to achieve the desired change. This chapter explores avenues for the Welsh Government to drive these two aspects. The first section discusses how the Welsh Government can build on its existing foresight and futures-thinking knowledge and activities to develop a long-term view of regional development and, from that, weave a strategic thread to guide policies impacting this area. The second section discusses how the Welsh Government can fill a co-ordination gap, adopt a mix of co-ordination mechanisms and foster cross-departmental working to build a truly integrated, cross-sectoral working environment to advance regional development.

Wales has established regional Corporate Joint Committees (CJCs) to support regional-level collaboration, governance and development. However, local authorities continue to query the expectations and benefits of CJCs as well as the motivations behind them. This section discusses the rationale behind the establishment of the CJCs and explores the fundamental building blocks that will determine the success of the CJCs during this critical early stage. These building blocks include clarity on the CJCs’ purpose, clear impact that is communicated to stakeholders, strong accountability and inter-regional co-operation.

This section explores how multi-level governance arrangements in Wales support a stronger working relationship among the Welsh Government, local authorities and Corporate Joint Committees (CJCs). It proposes new approaches to strengthen inter-governmental relationships, drawing on lessons from other disciplines, such as behavioural science. It summarises principles for better collaborative working developed by the Welsh Government, local authorities, CJCs and other stakeholders.

This synthesis report weaves together the results of OECD activities conducted as part of the Regional Governance and Public Investment in Wales, UK: Moving Forward Together project. The activities, described in further depth below, included vision-setting and action plan workshops, a multi-stakeholder workshop, and a master class with the Welsh Government.