A CONSORTIUM, led by a firm behind a £1.2bn North-East energy deal, has been chosen as the preferred bidder for a £900m London waste contract.

Sita UK will manage about 300,000 tonnes of household waste every year from West London, which will be collected from 1.4m residents and taken to a new waste-to-energy plant in Gloucestershire.

Earlier this month, Sita UK and Sembcorp UK revealed they were creating about 50 North-East jobs and hundreds of construction posts after winning a £1.2bn contract to turn more than 430,000 tonnes of household waste from Merseyside into energy every year at the new Wilton 11 factory, near Redcar.

The 30-year deal with Merseyside and Halton Waste Partnership includes total capital investment of about £250m, and is expected to be operational by 2016.

The latest contract, with West London Waste Authority, is spread over 25 years, and Sita will operate two rail-linked waste transfer stations, providing deliveries for the plant, which will produce enough energy to power 50,00 homes.

Creating more than 50 permanent jobs, the deal is worth a total capital investment of about £240m.

David Palmer-Jones, Sita UK chief executive, said: “We are looking forward to working with West London Waste Authority and developing the key infrastructure in this partnership.

“Contracts like this make the circular economy a reality and show environmentally sustainable solutions offer nothing other than business sense by extracting energy and employment from materials which too often are treated as waste.”