From time to time, people come to me and say that Kidderminster's town centre is turning into a wasteland, as they talk down the local economy. But the reality is the complete opposite.
Whilst I certainly agree that Worcester Street is but a shadow of its former glory, the reality is that the town centre has moved towards Weaver's Wharf. The owners are investing heavily into the town centre - around £30 million - to clear away Crown House and build new shops and restaurants. This new activity, designed to link Weavers Wharf with the many visitors who come to the Crossley Retail Park, will serve to increase foot-fall to Kidderminster and so help smaller businesses thrive.
This investment is part of a wider range of investments coming into the whole district. Indeed, the estimate is that something in the region of £140 million is earmarked for the immediate future in Wyre Forest and this will not only create construction jobs locally - the new builds will create new shops, factories, offices, amusement parks, all generating more wealth for the district and more opportunity locally.
Unemployment has fallen (although the most recent figures saw a small rise as people who had secured seasonal jobs for Christmas lost them in the new year), and has more than halved in the last ten years. Just last Thursday I helped open a new factory on the old Sealine site with 35 new jobs to the district.
Encouragingly, local wages are above average for the country, with both full time and part time pay beating the national average. However, complacency is a bad thing and we are also above average for part time jobs, meaning that we have lower than average household income. Whilst it should not be assumed that everyone on a part time job is unhappy with that arrangement, it must be the case that we need to offer more full time jobs and the task ahead is to redress the balance between full time and part time opportunities here locally.
Part of this process is bringing more training opportunities to the area and the prospects look bright, with both Birmingham Metropolitan College's Kidderminster town centre facility doing well as well as the new tie up between Kidderminster College and Newcastle College bringing more opportunities.
We are not through the woods yet, but we seem to be making progress.