A project worth £2.5bn to build the Middle East's largest development is being managed by a company from the North-East.

K Home International, in Thornaby, near Stockton, will create up to 250 jobs after winning its biggest contract to date, which will be worth about £30m over six years.

The Umm-Al Quwain development, in Dubai, will include 500,000 homes, three five-star hotels, mosques, schools, a marina and three shopping malls. It is four times larger than any previous K Home contract.

K Home is in talks with couture fashion houses such as Armani and Versace about opening shops in the malls.

Managing director Trevor Arnold spoke about the contract as he accepted the company's Queen's Award for International Trade from Lord Crathorne, Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire.

The company learned it had won the award earlier this year, for tripling its direct overseas sales to £12.5m, and Lord Crathorne presented the award yesterday.

Mr Arnold, who now works from the company's Dubai office, said: "In the last week, we have had an unbelievable time, finding out about this contract and then accepting our Queen's Award.

"We are now looking for about 250 people to work on the contract.

"We need construction managers, project managers, quantity surveyors, safety people and engineers across the board.

"They will be almost exclusively from the North-East because we employ people in this region wherever we can.

"We also try to use contractors from this region where it is practical, so it will have a knock-on effect in the North-East.

"In Dubai they are calling this development the St Tropez of the Middle East."

The company is now working on about £3bn-worth of projects in the Middle East.

Last year, it won a contract to oversee the building of the world's largest hotel, Atlantis, on the Palm in Dubai.

Construction is due to start on the seven-star hotel any day, and K Home is looking to increase numbers working on it from 20 people to about 70.