Investment totalling £4 billion pounds will be pumped into Wolverhampton and more than 20,000 jobs created over the next two decades it was revealed today.
Major retail and office developments earmarked for the city are expected to attract the huge cash injection and people in the city were promised a “bright future” despite today’s set back with the Summer Row scheme.
The latest figures compiled under the Black Country study, a blueprint for how the region will develop in the future, show currently there are 102,000 jobs in the city which will grow to at least 122,200 by 2026.
Many of the jobs generated will be highly skilled and will be in the service industries and council chiefs have pledged to help local people secure the employment on offer.
The city’s council leader, Roger Lawrence, today welcomed the predictions, adding: “Over the next few years we are hoping to attract around four billion pounds of investment to Wolverhampton and this will have a major impact on employment.
“Our main challenge will be to ensure as many of these jobs as possible will go to local people. This means we will need to focus on providing training opportunities and working with young people in our schools to ensure future generations have the right mix of skills to get these jobs.
“I believe we have a bright future to look forward to.”
Developments such as i54, a 220-acre prime development site near the M54, will attract investors and this project alone is set to create around half of the number of jobs forecast.
The Summer Row project will be a major boost to the economy if it manages to overcome its legal challenge, and the Interchange Project around the bus and train stations will also create short-term construction jobs and long-term opportunities.
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There will also be public sector sources such as the Decent Homes programme which is a multi-million pound scheme to upgrade homes in the most deprived areas of the city.
The study, which will be discussed at a council meeting on April 1, will also talk about how the make-up of the economy will change.
A report says the service sector will grow for example in banking and there will be a decline in traditional manufacturing.
It also says the Black Country is well placed to attract knowledge based industries.
Deputy council leader and lead member for economic generation, councillor Peter Bilson, said: “We would expect to see growth in the retail, leisure and service industry and this is to be welcomed because what we want to achieve is a better deal for people who live and work in Wolverhampton and encourage people to come to the city to shop and enjoy leisure. Many of the jobs generated will be highly skilled in IT and knowledge based industries.”
13 Comments
“We would expect to see growth in the retail, leisure and service industry”
This is just about the most negative statement I have ever seen …. and if a rebuttal is necessary then let me say that what is required is a sound program of manufacturing based product both of software and hardware inclined
Retail and office development. The Black Country was a manufacturing area, a great one once, destroyed by outsourcing, poor management and investment. Who is going to be able to shop in these retail stores? What exactly will these offices be filled with - Government departments? The heart of Britain has been destroyed, manufacturing needs to be brought back to the shores of Britain, and to the Black Country.
Mnaufactureing is dead, beacuse of globalisation and changes in technology. Times have changed and technology improves, therefore the manufacturing dies. We are living in a post modern society now - where computers (emailing internet) rule the roost and there is an increase in public service workers - I dont think the manufacturing industry will ever resurrect itself.
I think its great that some life is being injected into Wolverhampton. We are a City after all.
good news now here’s the real news 19,999 of the jobs will go to immigrants because it will be against the law to put a british worker first the jobs will be offered to our over seas workers?,and we don’t need notradamus to see that.
It is true that the black country was once a great manufacturing area however times have changed and globalisation has put an end to that.
I won’t go into all of the reasons why other than to say that where once as a manufacturing organisation all you had to do was compete against those in your local market, nowadays manufacturers need to compete on a global basis and it is survival of the fittest.
I see nothing at all wrong with office and retail development - This could be just what the black country needs to breathe a fresh lease of life into the area. Also - if you were one of the young people who may be able to embark on a new and exciting career as a result of the new developments, you’d probably have an entirely different viewpoint on it.
Embrace change because change is inevitable and those things which cannot adapt to change die.
Classic New Labour “only the future is certain” comment fom the council.
typical tipton comment.
complain about immigrants next youre going to say “This country has gone to the dogs, Im off to spain”
It would be great if these things were actually going to happen!
This is beyond a joke, how long is it taking to get this Summer Row Development going?? Are we the only city in the UK that hasn’t had any redevelopment? I think all this is coming too late now, with resession just around the corner!
The Summer Row development has been talked about for just over four years now and we’re still no closer to getting it!
This 20,000 new jobs in the next two decades would be good except i think it’ll be another 20 years before they even start work on the Summer Row Development! The Managment of the Wulfrun Centre are stopping Wolverhampton from progressing! Even Walsall is managing it! And Telford, The town centre there is also going to under go a major re-development with the Shopping Centre being renamed The Round!
Wolverhampton is a joke!!!!! Instead of talking and building peoples hopes up get things done!!!
I work in Wolverhampton, and thats about it, I don’t shop here, i don’t go out here and i don’t Eat here! Why? Because there is no where!
Wolverhampton seriously needs to get things done and at a quicker pace! We’re falling behind all the time!
Manufacturing died with the Black Country two decades ago - people forget we live in post-indistrial Britan. India and China do the manufacturing now - it’s time the Black Country went hi-tech and looked at innovation and specialism. As Henry Ford once said “We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s dam is the history we make today.”
Several hundred jobs will be created at the new Wolves International Airport.This will be required for all the flights to Poland,Lithuania and Latvia.
That’s only a thousand jobs a year over the next 20 years. Not really anything to sing and dance about is it?
ress try living in park lane east tipton and yes you’ve hit the nail on the head spain sounds like a good idea it must be because over 1000 familys have left the black country in the last year to live abroad,i took my son for an interview and guess what out of the 80 in the queue 70 were immigrants so its not a tipton thing ress it’s fact,so i’ll just find my sombrero and i’ll be leaving with the next wave of brits getting out of this tax mad country.