New figures reflect successful investment and job creation
Telford and Wrekin’s provisional gross value added figure for 2018 shows an increase of £300m on the previous year – reflecting the positive trend in the local economy caused by increased investment and job creation.
The 2018 figure is £4.89bn – up from the 2017 figure of £4.59bn. This is the measure of the value of goods and services produced in the borough.
This is an increase of 6.6 per cent, which is higher than the rate of change for both England (+3.1 per cent) and the West Midlands region (+4 per cent).
The figures also show that in 2018 Telford and Wrekin contributed 3.5 per cent of the total regional gross value added of £141.405bn – which is slightly up on the previous year’s figure of 3.4 per cent.
Telford and Wrekin is able to boast the joint second highest increase in gross value added out of the 14 West Midlands areas. Only urban Sandwell had a higher increase of 7.5 per cent. Telford and Wrekin shared second spot with Solihull.
Councillor Lee Carter, Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for Finance, Commercial Services and the Borough Economy, hailed the positive figures as a direct result of the council’s business winning, business supporting approach over the past eight years.
“We’ve placed great emphasis and demonstrated ongoing commitment by investing more than £50m in helping businesses to stay, grow or relocate to the borough,” said Councillor Carter.
“We continue to invest in employment, skills and training to help create the conditions for local businesses to expand and create employment opportunities for our residents.
“We will continue to be unapologetically ambitious in this respect.”
Examples of positive investments across Telford and Wrekin have included Magna Cosma making the largest new overseas investment in the UK in the past ten years.
Other businesses that have either relocated to Telford or expanded their existing operations include Polytec, Rosewood Pet Products, Craemer UK, Filtermist, AXYZ and Torus Group.
