Tech Mahindra, an Indian IT company, is to open a call centre in Jarrow, South Tyneside, and is expected to create up to 500 jobs over the next three years.

In a reversal of the trend for call centres being moved from the UK to the subcontinent, India’s sixth largest software exporter is expanding its presence in the UK, where it already has five contact centres, in Milton Keynes, Belfast and London. In the longer term, the Jarrow centre may engage in “northshoring” – the processing of local authority work sent north from London and the south-east.