A CONCERTED effort is to be made over the next decade to halt the trend for the Derwent Valley to become a commuter belt for Tyneside.

A key policy document, designed to shape regional planning policies for the next 15 years, is suggesting targeting the area for regeneration investment to provide local jobs for local people and imposing planning restrictions to halt the building of executive housing on greenfield sites.

Shaping the North East - the draft regional spatial strategy produced by the North East Assembly - highlights the three North Durham town centres of Consett, Stanley and Chester-le-Street as the major focus for regeneration in the north of the region.

The strategy calls for "indigenous growth" in the three towns as a regional priority to provide jobs, but adds it is important that regeneration "is justified by local needs and does not fuel increasing levels of commuting".

Latest figures reveal that an average of 800 people every year are abandoning Newcastle and Gateshead to move to County Durham, most of them relocating to the more rural communities of North Durham.

Although the districts of Durham City and Chester-le-Street have attracted a significant number of incomers, the influx has been greatest in Derwentside, where the pressure on housing has become so great that the district was last week named as the number one house price hotspot in the country.

A survey by lenders Nationwide revealed that prices in Derwentside shot up by 55 per cent last year, the highest rise of any local authority area in the UK.

Soaring demand has fuelled a remarkable house-building programme concentrated in the villages around Consett, with new estates springing up in the past few years at Templetown, Shotley Bridge, Villa Real and on the site of the former steelworks, which closed in 1980.

Rocketing prices are causing increasing problems for first-time buyers and the increasing trend for homeowners to commute to work is putting considerable rush-hour congestion on the main routes out of the district.

Colin Blackburn, the assembly's director of housing, said: "In places like Consett and Stanley we need to try to get a better balance in terms of population and employment growth.

"They are still suffering from the transition from coal and steel. It will take time, but the end goal is for more sustainable growth and, if we can get the right policy framework in place, we should see results from 2011 onwards."

The draft policy has been welcomed by Councillor Alex Watson, leader of Derwentside District Council and vice-chairman of the assembly.

He highlighted recent developments such as the opening of the business park at Villa Real, at Consett, and the growth of broadband-based industries on Tanfield Lea Industrial Estate, near Stanley, in terms of indigenous growth.

He said: "It is critical that we don't simply become a commuter area and obviously it gets the motorists off the road because at peak times trying to get into Newcastle or Durham is horrendous."

The strategy is to be discussed at public events to be staged in Durham City later this month, details of which will be announced later.