Nine months of work brings 4000 jobs for county

Staffordshire beats India and Wales to secure the new Jaguar engine plant and potentially 4000 new jobs

My Cabinet colleague Ben Adams and his economic development teams have been working for months to secure a massive new engine plant to be built by Jaguar/Land Rover.

The County Council bought the enormous I54 South Staffordshire in partnership with Wolverhampton during the demise of Advantage West Midlands. The intention was to beat one of the world’s fastest growing economies and also the devolved government of Wales to bring JLR investment of over £350million to Staffordshire. It will be one of the most technologically advanced engine production sites ever built anywhere.

Part of the deal we put together included building a brand new motorway junction to service the new plant as well as working with Jaguar to ensure workforce development in southern Staffordshire meets the needs of the new ultra high-tech job opportunities.

Nearly a thousand at the plant itself and a further 3000 jobs in the local supply chain. It was really tough keeping the negotiations under wraps for so long before the formal announcement was made last week in a blaze of publicity by the JLR leadership team.

It’s the latest of a series of good news stories around economic growth and jobs for Staffordshire, much of which has been supported or driven by the County Council through dogged determination and intelligent public investment.

More widely, the efforts have been focused on unblocking ‘ready to go’ developments in the county which have stalled because of the problems with banks and the tough economic climate whilst also actively courting big business to relocate or develop in Staffordshire.

And it’s certainly not about simply throwing tens of millions at it. I used the word ‘intelligent’ investment intentionally because the way funding is being invested will also reap financial rewards for the tax payer as well as helping to drive private sector jobs.

A renaissance is too strong a description even following something as important as the JLR announcement. But the high-tech jobs which will unquestionably improve prospects for the longer term has instilled a new confidence and enthusiasm which has been absent for so long. It does feel like a defining moment, particularly on the back of so much positive jobs news recently for Staffordshire.

All that said, it’s still tough. Efforts over the past year  are clearly being rewarded but to continue to buck the national and international economic trend will be a massive challenge. Ambition and confidence are high as is the level of determination to keep driving jobs and growth. We must now make sure the recent progress is a springboard for more.

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