The money will pay for work to link Scotland's biggest regeneration project with the M8 motorway at Newhouse, making alterations to a railway bridge and acquiring land along the route of a proposed dual carriageway.

North Lanarkshire Council, which is providing the finance, will allow the next stage of development of the former Ravenscraig steelworks site.

It is 20 years this week since the steelworks were shut down.

The £1.2 billion project to transform the in North Lanarkshire site, creating a new town, is expected to take up to 30 years to complete.

Last year, the council submitted a £73m funding proposal to the Scottish Government which would see money for the regeneration of Ravenscraig raised under a scheme known as Tax Incremental Financing (TIF).

It allows cash to be borrowed then repaid at a future date from projected increases in business rates income resulting from new developments on the site.

Provisional approval for this method of funding has been granted, subject to the development and submission of a business case and financial model. The local authority said final approval would leverage up to £425m of private investment, create up to 4500 permanent posts and 500 jobs during construction.

Last night, the council's head of environmental services, Paul Jukes, said: "To do nothing with such a large site is simply not an option."