Let's not begrudge Newcastle those 1,000 Tesco Personal Finance jobs

Scotland will have to content itself with the fact that Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) is creating a mere 1,000 jobs north of the border this year after the firm's decision to base its new customer service centre in Newcastle.

Whilst it's easy to sneer at TPF chief exec Benny Higgin's comments about the "qualified and enthusiastic workforce" in Newcastle and point to the 2m sweetener handed to the firm by local authorities, let's not forget that government coffers have supported much of the financial services job creation in Scotland this year.

A Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant of 5m certainly helped seal the deal for TPF to create 800 jobs within its other customer services centre in Glasgow.

Oh, esure's 500 call centre jobs were also supported by a 1.4m RSA grant and BNP Paribas' extra 80 roles announced in January were aided by the 3.7m awarded to the firm in 2007.

Funnily enough, the outrage that greeted Morgan Stanley's Scottish debut (600 Glasgow jobs and a 6m RSA grant) seems decidedly absent these days.