Member Article

City hopes after Nissan boost

Last week’s announcement of the creation of 800 new jobs at Nissan’s Sunderland plant has been hailed as proof of the city’s success. Sunderland City Council welcomed the news, and predicted further job announcements over the next few months.

Sunderland City Council leader Cllr Bob Symonds said: “This is fantastic news for the city - we’ve been working with Nissan to create the right conditions for their continued expansion in Sunderland since they first came here in the 1980s so we knew this was coming and we’re delighted to have been part of it.

“It means more jobs in the city and more sustainable employment both now and in the long term, creating stability and security for people working in this sector and continuing to bring more opportunities for the people of Sunderland.”

As well as the 800 jobs being created at Nissan, the introduction of a third shift is also expected to have the knock on effect of creating an additional 400 jobs in the company’s local supply chain which already employs 5,000 in Sunderland and another 6,000 across the region.

Cllr Symonds said: “Nissan is indicative of the automotive industries continuing to expand - we expect hundreds of jobs in this sector in the coming months, but we also have a number of other initiatives that are generating jobs in other sectors - for example just next door to Nissan we are about to see the start of Turbine Business Park which will see an investment of up to £80m bringing up to 4000 new jobs.”

“We have made it our priority to continue to focus on the key thing that matters to everyone - jobs for Sunderland people and we will ensure that there is a very strong economic future for the city, its people and for the next generation.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .