A RAFT of innovate projects designed to help a Teased town survive the recession totalling 900,000 have been unveiled.

Middlesbrough has not suffered from the credit crunch as badly as predicted due to nearly half of its residents working outside the town, a report has revealed.

The proposals would use £470,000 of unallocated resources from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund topped up by a possible £430,000 Middlesbrough Councils 2008/09 budget.

The towns action plan to combat the credit crunch was discussed at length based on two separate papers presented at the councils executive meeting yesterday (TUES) The economic downturn - update and response said the impact of the recession in Middlesbrough had been less acute than elsewhere in the region.

"Although no major closures have yet occurred in Middlesbrough, the impact of high profile company closures within the wider travel to work area will still have an impact as 41 per cent of Middlesbroughs resident population work outside the town," the report stated.

Over the past two months the number of vacancies registered with Jobcentre Plus across the Tees Valley had fallen by 37 but had only dropped by 14 per cent in the town from the same period last year.

Unemployment levels were at five per cent for February 2008, compared with 6.7 per cent for the same period this year.

Ray Mallon, Middlesbrough mayor, said about 60 per cent of the people who work in the town lived further afield. "One of the reasons we are doing ok is people coming here to work will shop here as well, we are attracting a lot of people into Middlesbrough and offering a different kind of mix of shops and entertainment. I hope that will be sustained," he said. "It is perverse but Middlesbrough is producing jobs for people who live outside the area. "We are doing a lot but we are not getting the dividends for people who live in the borough." Middlesbrough Partnership held a forum yesterday to discuss the recessions impact on the town. A spokesman said: "This is Middlesbrough's opportunity to develop a partnership approach to the issue, to ensure we work together to tackle the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead."