A new Wetherspoon which is set to open in Felixstowe is part of the pub giant's ambitious plans to invest £145million into opening new sites and upgrading existing ones.

Wetherspoon is set to invest £145million as its sites reopen across the UK following the easing of the current lockdown measures, creating 2,000 new jobs.

The company said a total of 18 new pubs will open and "significant extensions and upgrades" will be made to scores of current pubs.

One of these pubs is the new Wetherspoon site in the heart of Felixstowe, which was approved by planners in August last year.

Community leaders backed the latest plans for the pub - which had been revised multiple times - to regenerate the old Central Surgery site in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe, with the Felixstowe Society saying it was the “best scheme” to date.

The other 17 new pubs and extensions will be in towns and cities including Leeds, Birmingham, Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, Sheffield, Heswall on the Wirral, Dublin, Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthen and Glasgow.

Once all 75 projects in the pipeline are completed, Wetherspoon said it anticipates investing £750million to open 15 new pubs and enlarging 50 existing pubs each year for 10 years, creating 20,000 new jobs.

Tim Martin, Wetherspoon's founder and chairman, said: "Our immediate investment will provide work for architects, contractors and builders as well as result in 2,000 new jobs for staff in our pubs.

"We are geared up to start on the first projects within a few months.

"We are also committed to our long-term investment and job creation programme over the next decade.

"However, the investment is conditional on the UK opening back up again on a long-term basis, with no further lockdowns or the constant changing of rules."