THE new Guisborough Business Park could soon house 300 Redcar and Cleveland Council workers. The development has been selected as the new home for the local authority's environmental and technical services department.

Developer Benchmark Properties has also earmarked the site for a 40,000sq ft medical centre.

Bank counts the cost

Bank of Scotland's failed bid to take over NatWest knocked £54m off its profits for the last year, but the group said its underlying earnings had still hit record levels. Excluding the one-off costs, profits for the year to February 29 reached £965m, up from an equivalent £850m in the previous year. Sir John Shaw, Governor of the bank, commented: "It is a tribute to the management and staff that the bank has achieved excellent results in a year in which we pursued the high profile bid for NatWest." The bank sparked the takeover battle for NatWest last year by launching a hostile bid for NatWest, but was eventually defeated by a rival £21bn offer from Royal Bank of Scotland.

Tesco home loans

Tesco Personal finance, a joint venture between Tesco and the Royal Bank of Scotland, is to launch a "mortgage supermarket" on the Internet.

The company is linking up with leading independent mortgage advisor John Charcol to provide the service which will form a key part of its e-commerce strategy. The new Tesco Mortgage Finder service is set for a May launch and will offer a market-wide mortgage search, selection and online application service.

The service will also include Tesco "special" mortgages, which are deals with the UK's top mortgage lenders only available through the Tesco Internet site.

Body shop growth

Toiletries retailer Body Shop International is planning to boost sales by setting up a new company dedicated to selling its products over the Internet.

The group will own 59 per cent of a new company called The Body Shop Digital, which will develop the brand online.

Investment group Softbank Venture Capital is to invest 15m dollars (£9.6m) into the venture and will take a 24 per cent stake. The venture will be based in Seattle and its first priority will be the US market, where it plans to launch a site before Christmas. A UK site will follow, to be launched in the first half of next year.

The company announced the venture as it reported a jump in pre-tax profits for the year to 26 February - rising to £28.8m against £3.4m last time. Last year's figure had been reduced by £16.6m spent on restructuring the business, including redundancy costs. Turnover at the group rose to £330.1m, up from £303.7m last time.

Chemical training

A foundation course to help the long term unemployed has paid off with jobs in the chemicals industry. The course run by TTE is open to people who have been out of work for six months or more and is funded by the Tees Valley TEC.

Hands across the ocean

Businesses in North Yorkshire looking to increase trans-Atlantic sales have a chance to quiz Dave Barron, commercial officer with the British Consulate in Seattle, at a special meeting this summer.

Mr Barron will be hosting an advice clinic at Business Link North Yorkshire's headquarters in York on 2 June.