Manchester City Council's £700 million building programme will safeguard more than 8,000 jobs and provide essential skills and training over the next two years.

The many companies employed by the Council to do the work, the majority of which are based in the Northwest, will need a workforce of 1,200 professional people, including project managers, architects, surveyors and engineers, and 6,500 skilled trades people - supervisors, bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, painters, plumbers, plasterers and roofers - to deliver the programme.

The Council is helping contractors to recruit and train apprentices. There are 458 apprentices and trainees being supported - 390 through the various contractors involved and 60 through the Council's own training programme. A further eight trainees are expected to start in the next year.

The £700 million is the total spend allocated by the Council on the built environment. It includes new buildings and the refurbishment and maintenance of schools, libraries, leisure facilities and housing. It also includes the maintenance of roads within the city boundary.

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Councillor Sue Murphy, Executive Member for Employment and Skills, said: "These works add up to a huge programme of investment in facilities that will benefit Manchester residents for years to come and of which they can be proud.

"Crucially, our commitment to these improvements to the built environment is also sustaining vital jobs during a period of recession. It is the most direct way, but very far from the only one, in which we are doing everything in our power to help create new jobs and support our residents. These are being brought together in our Helping Hands initiative."

Key highlights of the £700 million building programme include:

• £288 million on the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and Academies programme
• £175 million on housing improvements, including Housing Market Renewal and Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
• £56 million on rebuilding and refurbishing primary schools
• £57 million maintenance works and miscellaneous small works
• £40 million on transport and highways, which also includes public realm works associated with Metrolink
• £23 million on regeneration projects in north, south and New East Manchester area
• £20 million on corporate asset repairs and maintenance
• £8 million on Sure Start children's centres

In addition, £40 million will be spent to begin the £165 million refurbishment of the Town Hall complex.

Nine new schools have already been built as part of the BSF Programme, with nine more secondary schools on site now, a further two due to start soon and one at the design stage.

In the past year, two new primary schools have been built through the Primary Capital Programme with a three more on site now and three at the design stage.

(CD/JM)