The redevelopment will include plans for a hotel

The new stand will take the capacity up from the current 75,000 when work is finally completed.

The development will feature a 156-bedroom hotel, restaurant, health and leisure club as well as a conference and exhibition centre.

There will also be basement parking for 200 cars and new ticket sales points.

The application, submitted by the Rugby Football Union in September 2002 but then revised earlier this year, will mark the completion of the stadium building programme started in the early 1990s.

Richard Knight, stadium director for the RFU, said, "English Rugby will, at last, get the national stadium it deserves and there will be tangible benefits to the local community."