A DEAL has been signed to use £330m of taxpayers' cash to kick start major projects and create up to 5,000 jobs across the region.

The transformation of the derelict former Vaux Brewery site in Sunderland; development of land beside Hitachi train factory in Newton Aycliffe, and expansion of the Netpark site in Sedgefield are among the schemes set to go ahead after Cities Minister Greg Clark, visited Science Central in Newcastle yesterday to sign the North East Growth Deal announced in July 2014 and given an extra cash injection last month.

He said it was an "historic deal between central government and local leaders and businesses" which devolved spending from Whitehall to the North-East.

Middlesbrough-born Mr Clark added: "The Growth Deal I am signing today builds on the region’s strengths - the projects to improve local transport infrastructure, boost skills and drive innovation will play an important part in the region’s growth in the future.”

Projects funded by the Growth Deal include:

Merchant Park 2 - to support inward investment and supply chain development adjacent to the future home of Hitachi Rail Europe.

Rural Growth Network infrastructure - a project to plug infrastructure gaps in key rural market towns and to grow the innovative, community-led network of rural enterprise hubs to support business growth.

Swans Wet Berth Infill - to create development land with quay frontage within the Swans site of the North East Enterprise Zone, thereby increasing availability of commercial land available for priority sectors.

A North East innovation programme - a package of five projects to support and drive innovation in the LEP area:

Newcastle Life Sciences Incubation Hub;

NETPark Infrastructure Phase 3;

Low Carbon Energy Centre; Newcastle Science Central;

Sunderland Enterprise and Innovation Hub;

The Centre for Innovation in Formulation.

A skills improvement package - five projects to increase skills levels in key sectors.

A transport improvement programme - nine strategic transport projects starting in 2015/16.

The creation of a facility for a national centre to develop and commercialise photonics-based therapies. Lead by the Centre for Process Innovation, at Netpark.

Upgrading the facilities at Northumberland College to improve skills. Sunderland Enterprise and Innovation Hub, comprising the first ‘Fab Lab’ in the North East, incubation spaces, and workshop, office and laboratory space for manufacturing, creative and science-based businesses.

An expansion of £40.6m of Government funding was announced on 29 January 2015, on top of £289.3m when the Growth Deal was originally announced in July 2014.