Outline proposals for the Cambois scheme have been submitted by Banks to the Department of Communities and Local Government, which is expected to announce in the spring which expressions of interest from across the country are to be taken forward.

Banks Developments said the project – taken together with RWE npower’s proposed 200-job power plant and plans to relocate the Port of Blyth to Cambois – could create a 2,500-job community covering a range of sectors. It would take about 17 years to complete, with 1,800 homes due to be delivered by 2016 if work starts in 2009.

The new community would include primary and secondary schools, a possible passenger rail link, a dedicated town centre with shopping and office buildings, community and leisure centres, a health clinic and improved road and footpath links.

A large proportion of the community’s energy requirements would be met by local generation, through a mixture of waste heat from clean-coal burning, biomass and wind turbines. Plans to build the UK’s biggest turbine close to Cambois as part of a repowered Blyth Harbour wind farm were approved last week by local councillors.