REGENERATION bosses have launched an ambitious bid aimed at creating and securing thousands of North-East jobs.

The Tees Valley Combined Authority and Tees Valley Unlimited Local Enterprise Partnership (TVU) are pushing to take a slice of £1.8bn Government funding.

Officials are keen to tap into the Local Growth Fund cash pot, which they say would provide fertile ground for companies’ expansion and unlock private sector investment.

They said Government support could help lever more than £300m of private investment into the Tees Valley and the north, which would create and secure almost 10,000 jobs.

According to the organisations’ blueprint, the proposed programme would focus on six areas, including research, development and innovation to increase productivity.

It would also invest in education and training to boost skills, with improvements to road, rail and bus networks highlighted as a critical factor in giving the region greater opportunity to attract and keep businesses.

Bosses added they would place greater emphasis on firms’ expansion through advice services and grants, improve commercial spaces for company use and support a City of Culture 2025 bid to promote the area’s arts and tourism.

Dave Budd, chairman of Tees Valley Combined Authority, said: “We have a programme of projects, which will deliver the transformational change that is needed in Tees Valley.

“We are calling on the Government to invest in our plans which, alongside the new powers and funding of the Tees Valley Combined Authority, will deliver our vision for the area.”

Mr Budd, who is also Middlesbrough’s mayor, said any funding would build on previous £96m Local Growth Fund cash, which helped deliver an open access technology centre for the Materials Processing Institute, near Middlesbrough, and a creative industries building at Cleveland College of Art and Design, in Hartlepool.

Paul Booth, TVU chairman, added: “This funding will help deliver our ambitions.

“The Local Growth Fund has already made a significant contribution to a number of important projects across Tees Valley and it is vitally important to the economic wellbeing of the region that this continues.”

The bid announcement came as a Government expansion of the Northern Powerhouse programme, aimed at rebalancing the country’s economy and providing local leaders with greater powers, was criticised by Labour.

Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary, said Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to extend the powerhouse to other parts of the UK would dilute the focus on disadvantaged areas of the north.

However, a Downing Street spokesman said Mrs May was “extending the Northern Powerhouse idea rather than ditching it”, and was aiming to create a British Powerhouse.