Northern Rock jobs in pipeline

Northern Rock is in the middle of an expansion

As many as 2,000 new jobs could be coming to the north-east of England, with the expansion of the Newcastle-based Northern Rock Bank.

The company already employs 2,500 people at the bank's Gosforth headquarters, and a further 600 at offices in Sunderland's Doxford Park.

On Wednesday, Northern Rock announced profits of £326m - an increase of 18%.

Now chief operating officer David Baker has said many more jobs are on the way.

'Good news'

He said: "We are currently coming to the end of the first phase of our expansion at our headquarters in Gosforth, which will give us 1,000 extra work stations.

"We will be beginning another phase immediately following that, which in two years' time will provide another 1,000 work stations.

"We are planning to expand and to create more jobs in the North East, which is good news for the region."

The profits figure was at the top-end of analysts' forecasts, and the bank said its business remained strong despite some signs of cooling house prices.

Northern Rock said it did not expect to see a sharp reduction in values, and forecast house price inflation of about 5% by the end of 2003.