Sunderland Vaux brewery site plan gets £100m boost

A £100m regeneration deal billed as a city's "single most significant investment" has been agreed.

Major investment company Legal & General has announced it will invest in a "visionary plan" which includes the long-awaited development of the old Vaux Brewery site in Sunderland.

Three buildings planned for the site include the new Sunderland City Hall.

The company's chief executive officer Nigel Wilson said the city was "ripe for economic growth".

"Sunderland City Council has drawn up a visionary plan for Sunderland," he said.

The city had "historically lagged behind its Northern neighbours" but could be transformed with "long term patient capital injection", he said.

The 26-acre site of the old brewery has been vacant since it closed in 1999.

It was bought by the council in 2011 and, in 2014, a redevelopment plan was formed in partnership with developer Carillion.

After Carillion's collapse in 2018, Tolent resumed redevelopment later that year.

In July this year online supermarket Ocado announced plans to set up a new centre on the site, creating 300 jobs.

Council chief executive Patrick Melia said the latest investment represented a "serious vote of confidence" in the city.

"Make no mistake, today's announcement is the single most significant investment story to come out of Sunderland for decades," he said.

"Sunderland has been something of a sleeping giant, but it has awoken."