About 3,000 homes in Gateshead will benefit from extra Home Office cash to tackle burglary, it was announced today.

The crime-breaking scheme, run by Northumbria Police in partnership with Gateshead Metropolitan Council, was awarded £60,000 in April 1999.

An extra £46,000 will be used to fund a tenancy relations team officer to work with private landlords to tackle crime.

Announcing the cash injection, Home Office Minister Charles Clarke said: "Nationally, domestic burglary fell by six per cent, according to the latest recorded crime statistics. Extra money for this project will help drive it down even further."

In the three years before the project began, an average of 350 burglaries were recorded in the project area. Last year, 228 burglaries were recorded.

Six new projects have been approved and four existing projects have been granted extra funding in the latest round of awards.

This brings the total number of awards to 231, with a value of almost £20m, covering a total of 1.3m homes.