A £47 million cash boost is being handed to Worcestershire - in a Government bid to create thousands of jobs and boost the economy.

The Government announced earlier today Monday, July 7 the outcome of the county's Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) submitted at the end of March.

Worcestershire County Council worked with the Local Enterprise Partnership, district councils and local businesses to come up with a plan which pushed the boundaries and laid out how, through infrastructure improvements, skills and innovation, Worcestershire could create better paid jobs and a stronger local economy.

The outcome of Worcestershire's bid is that a total of £47million has been awarded to support a number of critical projects due to start over the next couple of years.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, county council deputy leader and cabinet member for economy, skills and infrastructure, said: "This is great news and backs the ambitious 10 year plan that was devised by local government and businesses working together through Worcestershire LEP.

"The allocation over the next five years is significant and allows investment in key schemes in rail, road, broadband and flood alleviation.

"Looking to the future there are exciting times ahead and we will now work alongside others in bringing these projects to reality thereby boosting the local economy and tackling key transport bottlenecks."

Peter Pawsey, chairman of Worcestershire's LEP said: "This is a good and fair deal for Worcestershire which we welcome, but it will require our partners to be creative and some choices will have to be made.

"Of course we would always have liked more cash but the allocated fund was massively oversubscribed and together with other funding streams, including those from Europe and from county and district councils' resources, we can together make some very significant progress on our priority schemes."