Gateshead’s Metrocentre shopping centre has signed an agreement to deliver Metro Riverside — a transformational urban regeneration project that plans 4,500 new homes and 5,000 new jobs — in partnership with Gateshead Council.

The plan is for a major new mixed-use development on the south bank of the River Tyne, creating a carbon-neutral “city within a city” with Metrocentre at its heart.

Located three miles west of Newcastle-Gateshead city centre, Metro Riverside would transform under-utilised brownfield land surrounding Metrocentre into a new urban community.

Metrocentre chairman Martin Healy said: “Metro Riverside demonstrates the power of long-term public-private partnerships to unlock transformational change. Developments of this scale and ambition simply cannot be delivered in isolation.

“By working in partnership with Gateshead Council and others, we can bring together long term investment, local leadership and shared purpose to create a new dense, urban community that delivers homes, jobs and opportunities, while ensuring Metrocentre continues to evolve as a major economic engine for the region for decades to come.”