A massive bid to roll out superfast broadband across Newcastle, Northumberland and North Tyneside has been hailed as "vital" to the region - but council bosses have admitted that not everyone will benefit.

North of Tyne Combined Authority chiefs will make their final pitch to Government next week to secure £12m of investment to help install ultrafast fibre optic cabling in hundreds of public buildings.

But councillors heard on Tuesday morning that there are some parts of rural Northumberland that will see no direct benefits.

That is because the roll out will be limited to public-owned buildings, such as schools and council buildings, and cannot go directly to homes or private businesses.

Steve Smith, Northumberland County Council's digital design and delivery manager, told a combined authority scrutiny committee: "Disappointingly, because the investment through this is specifically limited to public sector assets, there are areas in Northumberland where - for a number of reasons - there are not public sector assets anymore.

"But anywhere we can get closer to is going to benefit. If we can get halfway there, we have still achieved that.

"Not everywhere will benefit directly with full fibre but any work we can do will reduce the cost of pushing it out into those communities."

If the North of Tyne's bid to join the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) Full Fibre Programme is successful, the £12m cash injection would be matched by the three local councils and the cable installation completed from 2021 onwards.

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North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll told the same scrutiny meeting that all that needed to be done to secure the Government funding was to "dot the i's and cross the t's".

Following the relocation of tech giant Sage away from the Newcastle Great Park this week, Newcastle Lib Dem councillor Greg Stone said that a lack of fast internet access was a problem for businesses located west of the A1.

Mr Smith responded that "connectivity is vital for the competitiveness of our businesses".