Shropshire Star

£300 million rise in value of goods and services produced in Telford

The value of goods and services produced in Telford has increased by £300 million in the latest released figures.

Published
Last updated

The provisional gross value added figure for 2018 is £4.89 billion, up from £4.59 billion in 2017.

Telford & Wrekin Council said the increases reflected a positive trend caused by increased investment and job creation.

The increase of 6.6 per cent is higher than the rate of change for both England, at 3.1 per cent, and the West Midlands region at four 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.

Councillor Lee Carter, Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for finance, said: "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.

"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.”

Telford and Wrekin has seen the second highest increase in gross value added out of 14 West Midlands areas. Sandwell had a higher increase of 7.5 per cent. The borough shared second spot with Solihull.