REGIONAL development agency One NorthEast handed out more than £23m last year to create and safeguard thousands of jobs.

Forty-two firms were helped under the Government's Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) scheme.

The grant offers are expected to create 1,629 jobs and safeguard a further 1,497. The money will allow the firms to invest £200m into their businesses.

In the past decade, £149m in RSA assistance has been offered to 1,717 UK firms in the North-East with 156 overseas companies establishing or expanding in the region being offered £212m during the same period.