Salford City Council has approved the £1 billion expansion of MediaCityUK, which will take place over the next decade.

The site is set to “double in size” by 2026, with two tower blocks among the 10 new buildings, 1,400 properties and a multi storey car park.

The £650 million site first opened five years ago and employs more than 7,000 people, including around 3,000 BBC and 900 ITV staff.

Salford MPs called for the expansion to include more jobs for people from the local area.

Salford Council explained that the MediaCityUK development plans formed the second phase of a 20 year plan to transform the former docklands site.

One spokesman said that the 10 year building scheme would provide the area with hundreds of new jobs.

Labour MP for Salford and Eccles, Rebecca Long Bailey, called for companies in MediaCityUK to make “real investment in quality apprenticeships for local people.”

Bailey continued: “I would like to see companies in MediaCity agree to aim for a minimum percentage of apprentices who live locally.”

Meanwhile, her Labour colleague Barbara Keeley, the MP for Worsley and Eccles South, also commented: “The way that MediaCity was established it probably didn’t generate enough new opportunities for local people to get jobs and that is something that needs to happen.”

Hazel Blears, former Salford MP, complained in 2012 that only 26 of the 680 new BBC jobs created at the Salford site had gone to local residents, although the BBC said that it was recruiting staff based on experience and skills rather than where they came from.

In 2006, the 200-acre site was chosen by the BBC to relocate some of its departments to the North of England and the Salford Quays site was developed in a partnership with Salford City Council, developer Peel Holdings and development bodies.