TESCO will unveil plans for 1,500 jobs across the North-East today with new stores linked to regeneration schemes.

The first will be on the outskirts of Durham City where the southern-based chain is building an 87,000sq ft supermarket on the site of a derelict carpet factory.

This will create 450 jobs, and the company is launching a project to offer many of them to local people.

It is hoped the scheme, which will see the supermarket work alongside community and union leaders, will be the blueprint for others in the region to be announced today.

Tesco was refusing to reveal any details yesterday of its plans to create more than 1,000 more local jobs.

As northern store chains break into Tesco's southern territory, the company is heading north, and wants to help the region's unemployed people.

Although Durham is a generally affluent city there are pockets of deprivation and high unemployment on its outskirts.

The new store in Renny's Lane, Dragonville, is near the once-notorious Sherburn Road Estate, which is being transformed by a five-year regeneration scheme.

The Dragonville Partnership will include Tesco, shopworkers' union Usdaw, the Employment Service, the city and county councils and the Sherburn Road Regeneration Initiative.

A Tesco spokesman said: "Dragonville will break down the barriers to employment. If unemployed people cannot read and write, but have the will to work, we will teach them the basic skills.

"We are working very closely with the Department of Education, Basic Skills Agency and Employment Service to make sure that we can break some of the chains of circumstances that hold back areas such as Dragonville.

"We can help restore the identity of the community and give them yet another reason to be proud of Dragonville.''

Tesco will also look to provide a convenient, safe and affordable childcare network for parents prevented from working because of that need.

Ernest Dobson, director of the Sherburn Road Regeneration Initiative, said: "Tesco is opening up a golden door of opportunity to people who need training and employment in the local area, and we as partners will do everything we can to make this scheme work well.''