PEOPLE without jobs in disadvantaged parts of Middlesbrough are to benefit from a £3m pilot scheme to tackle unemployment, it was announced yesterday.

The scheme will test a new approach of offering intensive support to residents, particularly in Thorntree, North Ormesby and Brambles Farm.

The aim is to help them access jobs within travelling distance of where they live.

It will also help tackle barriers to employment such as poor transport and lack of childcare.

Steve Davidson, Tees Valley Jobcentre Plus District Manager, said: "I am pleased that parts of Middlesbrough have been selected to pilot this new programme.

"I am looking forward to working with local partners to explore how we can best work together to deliver the support workless people need to help them back into the labour market."

The scheme begins in April next year and will last two years.

It is one of 12 across the country targeted at concentrations of unemployment.

The employment rate in Middlesbrough is just over 62 per cent, compared to the national rate of almost 75 per cent.

In the surrounding area, 2,000 vacancies are notified to Jobcentre Plus every month, with many more advertised through other means.

Residents in the area who are claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) will benefit from accelerated access on to New Deal programmes after only three months of unemployment, compared with the current six months for young people, and 18 months for those aged 25 and over.

Lone parents, new Incapacity Benefit claimants and partners of JSA claimants will also be given extra help.

Middlesbrough MP Stuart Bell said: "We have long been concerned to mobilise and lift these communities, and these efforts and the pilot are designed to do this.

"We need to concentrate on areas of deprivation where people feel the Government is not helping them, and this is our answer.

"People should embrace this scheme because we are trying to help, and if successful, it will be used elsewhere."