The Swansea Bay City Region is coterminous with the area defined as South West Wales.

Local authorities in the South West Wales area made a bid for city region status during early 2012.

[1] A report to the Welsh Government in July 2012 recommended the creation of city regions in Wales to help improve economic performance compared with the rest of the United Kingdom.

[2] The Swansea Bay City Region was launched in July 2013 following a consultation period by the Welsh Government resulting in a report recommending its creation.

[5][6][7][8][9] There is a plan to build a barrage across Swansea Bay and direct water from the incoming and outgoing tides through turbines to generate electricity from tidal power as a form of renewable energy.