Northern Rock is one of the North East's largest employers

The Tyneside-based bank will take up about half of the 50-acre business park at Rainton Bridge in a joint project with Sunderland City Council.

It is being hailed as one of the largest job creation projects ever to go ahead in a former UK coalfield area.

Construction work is due to start at the site in early 2006.

Alistair Leslie, operational director with Northern Rock, said: "We are looking forward to working together with Sunderland City Council on this exciting new development.

Working relationship

"It complements the continuing expansion of our head office site in Gosforth and further illustrates our commitment to creating employment opportunities in the North East of England."

Bob Symonds, leader of Sunderland City Council, added: "Northern Rock is already a major employer in the city and we have had a very close working relationship with them over the past 10 years.

"We've been involved in detailed negotiations with the company at the highest level for the past 12 months and we're delighted that this will result in a really exciting development at Rainton Bridge.

"This shows that Sunderland is once again leading the way in attracting blue chip companies and private sector investment."