NEWPORT'S victory over rival cities to bring 500 prestige white collar jobs to the area is a huge vote of confidence in the city, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said.

Yesterday we revealed how the Prison Service chose the giant CS1000 building at Celtic Springs business park to relocate jobs from London.

But many civil servants are not expected to relocate to South Wales, leaving high-paid, high-skilled jobs open to people in Gwent.

Newport beat Peterborough, and Birmingham to win the jobs.

And Welsh Secretary Peter Hain revealed that while he worked behind the scenes it was Newport itself which persuaded Home Secretary Charles Clarke to locate the Prison Service's new Shared Service Centre for Human Resources and Finance in the city.

"Newport came top because it is the tops," Mr Hain told the Argus. The successful bid was put together by the council, Newport Unlimited, the National Assembly, the Welsh Development Agency with Mr Hain and Welsh Under Secretary and Islwyn MP Don Touhig lobbying for the city in Whitehall.

Mr Hain said: "Don Touhig and I had close discussions with Home Office ministers. But in the end the Newport bid won on its merits."

He said the director of finance for the Prison Service decided Newport offered the best option for the new centre, scoring points on workforce, location, accommodation and facilities.

Mr Hain said: "These are good jobs, well paid Civil Service jobs and go right through the grades from clerical, IT to senior management.

"Coming on top of the Office of National Statistics announcement of another 500-600 jobs it shows Newport, as Wales' newest city, is on the up along with Cardiff and Swansea."

Mr Touhig said that Celtic Springs was "a great adva-ntage" in securing the jobs. "We had a good story to tell, it met all the criteria the Home Office was looking for."

Newport Unli-mited's director of development John Burrows said: "The Prison Service was very impressed with the whole package we put together to try and draw these jobs to Newport.

"They liked the fact that we and the city council both work closely with other government departments."