<p>Eric Pickles remarked that this is a perfect example of a town helping itself.</p> <p>When I guided him around the Southwater development with David Wright, MP for Telford, Mr Pickles&nbsp;was really impressed by what he saw.</p> <p>The Minister had challenged me on two previous occasions with “never mind the long speeches Councillors, just tell me&nbsp;how many jobs will your policy create”.</p> <p>So with this in mind, I went straight to the point of telling him that the Southwater development will create around&nbsp;450 jobs here, with the first being recruited to early next year. However, this is just the beginning. Planning permission has just been granted for the Telford shopping centre’s £200m redevelopment, which will create 2,000 jobs.</p> <p>In the afternoon Mr Pickles met local house building companies at Lawley and was told by builders&nbsp;Taylor Woodrow and Persimmons&nbsp;that 25% of their total house building in the UK was in Telford and Wrekin and that they were really impressed by the business like attitude of this Council.</p> <p>At the cornerstone of&nbsp;our plans for the growth we are creating in the borough is the ambition to create a total of 5,000 new jobs over the next five years. This is not growth for growth’s sake – it will provide our young people with a future, while still ensuring that we can continue to fund vital public services, such as care for older people and vulnerable children.</p>
