DELIVERY group TNT is to open a £4.5m call centre in the region, creating 200 jobs.

Its Express Services operation will begin recruiting later this year when it opens the centre at Maingate House, Team Valley, near Gateshead.

The announcement comes only months after the closure of lender Abbey's call centre in Gateshead, after the bank moved the jobs to India.

Abbey announced in March it was closing the contact centre, making 235 people redundant.

A TNT spokesman said the company had been working with Abbey to employ many of its staff at the company's new call centre.

Abbey staff were given six months' gardening leave from March in which to find jobs.

Nigel Barton, director of operations at TNT Express Services, said the company was bucking the trend that had seen numerous UK companies moving call centres overseas.

He said: "We believe our customers' best interests are served by maintaining our customer service activity with the UK.

"Our people can draw on knowledge of our business, familiarity with the geography of the UK, along with continuing the best practice customer service procedures we have cultivated over the years."

TNT's call centre will work in tandem with two other call centres in Atherstone, in Warwickshire, and Lount, in Leicestershire, to provide a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week service.

All three are linked to TNT call centres around the world so that national and international inquiries can be dealt with in one call.

Up to 22 TNT employees working at the company's Durham depot will move to the new call centre, while the remaining positions will be filled by next year.

The Team Valley Call Centre is part of an £80m investment programme by TNT Express Services in the company's network of depots around the UK over the next 15 months.