A vehicle testing facility in Warwickshire has taken a crucial step towards creating thousands of hi-tech jobs.

MIRA, which specialises in research and testing for top-name automotive companies, has been given the green light for its plans to build a new control tower.

Up to 70 new jobs will be created at the company in the next year through the expansion.

MIRA eventually hopes to create a total of 2,000 jobs at its 750-acre site near Nuneaton, which already houses bases for car giants Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors.

Terry Spall, commercial director of MIRA Technology Park, said approval for the control tower has got the development off to a good start.

“Having these new facilities gives us more space and allows us to have more companies that want to be at MIRA here,” he said.

“At the minute our testers are still in the Second World War building and that’s the first thing people see when they visit the company, so the new control tower will give people the right image.

“We’re working very closely with the borough council and consulting with the local community so we’re hoping that we can continue to progress as a company.”

MIRA was established in 1946, and was entirely Government-funded at the time.

Its future was seen to be under threat in the 1970s when funding started to dry up but it has remained ever since and is now an entirely private business.