A SIGNIFICANT breakthrough has been made in attempts to bring 20,000 jobs to the Tees Valley.

Banks in Thailand have today agreed to sell the former Redcar steelworks site to the Mayor of the Tees Valley.

Mayor Ben Houchen is making an announcement this afternoon that an “agreement in principle” has been reached with the three banks which were left owning most of the 4,500 acre site when the Thai steelmaking firm SSI collapsed in 2015.

The mayor struck the deal in the British Embassy in Bangkok on his trade mission to the Far East.

He has plans to create 20,000 jobs on the site in the next decade, and the Government has assisted in the creation of a development corporation with wide-ranging powers which covers the site, but the ownership of the land has proved a stumbling block.

But now an agreement, for an undisclosed sum, has been reached with the Krung Thai Bank, the Siam Commercial Bank and the TISCO Bank.

Mr Houchen said: “This is a significant breakthrough in securing the ownership of the former SSI site. I welcome the agreement we have made to proceed with this deal, subject to the final approval of both sides.

“I am grateful to the Thai banks for their cooperation throughout this process. They recognise how important this site is to the people of the Tees Valley, and are keen to conclude negotiations very soon.

“I am also grateful to the British Embassy in Bangkok and our own Government at home for pulling every lever possible to reach what we have agreed today.”

The trip to Thailand was shorthorned late into Mr Houchen’s schedule as he led the Tees Valley’s first trade mission to Japan and South Korea.

The Tees Valley delegation had just 24 hours in the Thai capital. The delegation included Steve Gibson, the chairman of Middlesbrough FC, and Paul Booth, the former chairman of Sabic, who are both on the board of the Tees valley Combine Authority, plus Cllr Sue Jeffrey, the leader of Redcar & Cleveland council, and Jonathan Bretherton, of the development corporation.

Mr Houchen said: “We’ve got the money to remediate the land, the powers to invest, and more than 100 businesses lining up, but we just need the land to kick-start development.”

The deal needs to be agreed by the British Government, the Official Receiver, and the boards of the three banks. It is hoped that the transaction will be fully completed later this year.

One of the first major schemes on the site is likely to be a multi-billion pound gas energy generation plant.

Redcar MP Anna Turley said: “It was crucial that these talks in Thailand went well. This news sounds positive and I want to congratulate everyone involved.

“We are almost three years on from the closure so this process has taken a long time but hopefully this is now the result we needed to liberate the site and get to work delivering our ambitions for a new industrial renaissance on the banks of the Tees.

“I look forward to seeing the detail of what has been agreed with the Thai banks and trust that any costs will be covered by the Government, rather than being borne by local people.”