IT'S difficult to remember the last time anywhere in East Lancashire received an announcement that a new employer was about to move in and create 1,500 jobs.

And Blackburn with Darwen Council officials deserve praise for successfully concluding more than two years of negotiation which will see a Sussex-based firm build three call centres on the Shadsworth Industrial Estate in a £19million project.

East Lancashire has long suffered by having fewer office jobs than many areas of the country. The white collar work to be created will bring much needed spending power to the economy.

Grant help will ensure local people get a lion's share of the new employment. As regeneration boss Graham Burgess says, the council could have filled the Shadsworth Industrial Estate "several times over" with giant warehouses that represent investment but very few actual jobs.

Some caution has been expressed because call centre jobs are traditionally low paid, do not bring with them the same infrastructure or skill levels as manufacturing jobs and can move out very easily.

But in the present economy the truth is that manufacturing jobs are not being created on this scale anywhere in the UK.

And far from depressing wages, our other white collar success story Capita is actually averaging £1,000 more per post than than the area's average pay rate. So let's wholeheartedly welcome this news.