THURROCK Council is working with a group of local organisations and businesses to tackle unemployment and promote investment in the borough.

An event on December 4 at the South Essex College campus in Grays heard the council - through its Social Value and Framework strategy - hopes to create 300 new jobs and over 100 apprenticeships in the next four years.

Delegates heard that of the 50 young people helped so far by the council, 40 have now moved into job or training; ten are currently on council run programmes. In addition the council and its partners have other apprenticeships in progress.

Local people and businesses, youth charities the Prince’s Trust and the Youth Construction Trust as well contractors involved in delivering the council’s Housing programmes heard how working together had improved the lives of the 50 - people who had previously been classed as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) or were long-term unemployed.

Kathryn Adedeji, the council’s head of housing, investment and development, said: “In the next four years, we want to create 300 new jobs and 100 apprenticeships.

“An important part of this is ensuring our contractors understand the role they play and what level of commitment would be required from a partner.”

She said the council’s partners would need to be actively involved in providing a wide range of opportunities across occupations and tailored to the specific needs of Thurrock residents.

“We want to encourage our partners to spend money locally. When a partner is looking to subcontract, we would expect them to support local businesses. We want to create an environment where local businesses and residents flourish,” she said.

“We want to offer local residents and businesses the opportunities to take advantage of the growth which are happening within the borough and our activities are shaped by what our residents have asked us for.

“In evaluating contractors we will assess them on their ability to meet our commitments to our local economy. Contractors working with the council will be evaluated against what they achieve for our residents – it’s easy to make promises, but it must be understood that we will hold our contractors to them.”