Wrexham: More than 300 jobs announced by UK government

The UK government has promised it will base more than 300 extra civil service roles in Wrexham.

The Department for Work and Pensions will recruit 270 roles to be based in the city.

Meanwhile 50 officials from the Ministry of Justice will be located in Wrexham rather than London.

Ministers said they wanted to bring forward plans to relocate jobs out of Westminster to other parts of the UK.

More than 30,000 UK government civil servants are already located in Wales.

Large employers include the DVLA in Swansea and the Office for National Statistics in Newport.

Conservative Welsh Secretary David TC Davies said the announcement "shows once again the UK government's commitment to improving how services are delivered to the public while bringing greater opportunity and jobs to areas across the country".

Councillor Mark Pritchard, leader of Wrexham council, said it was "fantastic news".

The UK government said it was bringing forward a target to relocate 22,000 roles out of London from 2030 to 2027.

The Places for Growth programme will also see hundreds of civil service jobs relocated to Aberdeen in Scotland over the next two years.

It said figures showed 16,061 had been moved out of London, ahead of a target of 15,000 by 2025.

Plaid Cymru's North Wales Senedd member Llyr Gruffydd said: "Any new jobs for north Wales are very welcome given that families in Wrexham and elsewhere are grappling with the Conservative government's cost of living crisis and need all the help we can get."

He said it was a "step in the right direction" and it was "high time we see more civil service jobs being distributed more equitably across the country".