Records of the Welsh Planning Board

Division within BD

1961-1971

Records of the Welsh Planning Board relating to the co-ordination of the regional economic planning work and the development of planning strategy.

Agenda, minutes and papers of the board are in BD 53

Public Record(s)

English

1 series

In 1964 the Prime Minister announced that the Minister of State for Welsh Office should become responsible for a long term economic survey of the different regions of Wales. It was felt that the work should be carried out on a basis common to other regions and in particular that the survey should be under the direct control and guidance of a small interdepartmental group known as the Welsh Study Group.

Following the formal announcement in December 1964 by the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs of the setting up of new regional Councils and Boards, the Welsh Study group was renamed the Welsh Planning Board. It was decided that the board should follow the English pattern and be made up of senior officials from government departments concerned with economic matters. It met about every two months under the chairmanship of a senior Welsh Office official who dealt with economic affairs in the Welsh Office.

The board's main function was to co-ordinate the regional economic planning work of departments and to assist both the secretary of state and the Welsh Council in developing a planning strategy for Wales. As time progressed the Welsh Council extended beyond the purely economic field and the board's function and membership also widened accordingly.

Around the time of the demise of the economic planning council structure elsewhere in the UK (1978-1979) the board was reconstituted as the Welsh Economic Planning Board. It was thought that the main value of the board would be as a place in which information could be exchanged about developments affecting industrial and economic decisions in Wales and opinions about likely developments be put to the test. It did not meet on a regular basis and by 1985 was defunct in all but name.