NORTH-East bank Northern Rock last night said it would bring 900 jobs to the region this year as it continues with expansion plans.

The mortgage lender, which is based in Newcastle but also has a contact centre in Doxford Park, Sunderland, will create most of the jobs in the two cities.

Northern Rock said it recruited nearly 2,000 staff last year, with 1,000 of the posts newly-created.

The recruitment is part of its plans to create nearly 3,000 jobs over three years, nearly all based in the region.

The announcement came as the bank announced record profits for last year, during which it increased the size of the business by a quarter.

Chief operating officer David Baker said: "They are great results - record lending, record profits, the business has grown by 25 per cent, profits by 13 per cent and we have made a big improvement in the market share.

"This is overall a very positive report for the North-East. If we are growing our business by 25 per cent, that is a large number of new customers, which is in turn a big logistical exercise for us and means we need many new employees.

"And it is in the North-East that we are going to do that investment, because it makes financial sense to us to run the business from the region."

Continued expansion at the Gosforth, Newcastle, site has led to 3,500 staff being employed there.

If plans to demolish and replace its tower block are passed, the capacity of the new building would be 5,000.

At Sunderland, there are 820 staff, with plans to create another 100 jobs there this year.

Northern Rock said a weaker housing market would put pressure on demand for mortgages this year, but said it was confident of further growth even in a slowing market.

Lending volumes remained strong and its share of the UK mortgage market rose to more than 14 per cent in the second half of last year and stood at 11.2 per cent for the full year.

Pre-tax profits of £431.2m were in line with market forecasts and set a new record after beating the £386.8m reported a year ago.

Net lending also reached an all-time high last year, up 51.9 per cent to £12.9bn, faster than the 34.8 per cent growth in gross lending to £23.3bn.

Although the market for new mortgages had not been as buoyant since June, Northern Rock said its prospects for this year were good and that it had a pipeline of new business worth £5.1bn.

Chief executive Adam Applegarth expected little change in the housing market for at least the next two years, with property sales at the lower end of long-term trends.