The Mayor of London Boris Johnson MP has today announced 24 businesses and community groups in the capital are to benefit from a new £20m London Regeneration Fund.
The London Regeneration Fund aims to re-energise the capital’s places of work and high streets by embracing the city’s incredible talent for creativity and technological innovation. It was launched by the Mayor through the London Enterprise Panel (LEP) following a successful bid to Government in January 2015 as part of the LEP’s Growth Deal.
The Mayor revealed the successful bids while visiting the Building BloQs workshop in Edmonton which offers shared facilities for professional makers, designers and small creative businesses.
Building BloQs is already London’s largest open workshop and the £1.35m that it will receive from the London Regeneration Fund will allow it to move to a larger site, offering members the opportunity to use professional standard machinery and processing on a pay-as-you-go basis.
London’s 800,000 small and medium-sized businesses account for nearly half of the capital’s jobs and generate approximately £430bn turnover. The Mayor believes they hold the potential for much of London’s future enterprise, innovation and economic growth, but are struggling to find workspace. A key ambition for this latest round of funding was to help tackle the shortage of affordable creative workspaces and a number of the winning applications will create new spaces for artists and creative entrepreneurs.
Since he became Mayor, Boris Johnson’s dedicated regeneration funds have invested £189m and levered in around £131.5m in match-funding that has helped more than 85 high streets adapt to changing circumstances and thrive. This funding has also seen almost 1,000 shopfronts improved, 1,577 jobs created, and training and support received by over 3,000 businesses and young people.
Along with Building BloQs, other recipients including local authorities, traders’ associations, workspace providers, and community groups will use the funding to help new and traditional places of work thrive in a rapidly changing city.
Innovative ideas include introducing contactless payments to a 700 year old street market in Romford, turning the former Peckham Road Fire Station into an art gallery, and refurbishing a Grade II listed railway station to include a community garden in North Woolwich.
The Mayor of London and Chair of the LEP Boris Johnson MP said: “High streets and town centres the length and breadth of London are a hive of economic activity fuelled by creative minds. It’s important that we make sure they continue to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving city and the talented people who are key to its future success. It’s fantastic to see so many applicants to this fund, offering innovative ways to nurture and support the dynamism and creativity that will power our economy in the years ahead.”
Al Parra, Co-Founder, Building BloQs"Building BloQs is creating a powerhouse of making for London. We seek to realise a vision, redefining both making and the approach to space, resource and community. We have proved the model, and now with this far sighted support from the GLA, we will provide greater resources for more freelance makers, small businesses and designers to find both a home and a springboard for innovation and growth for the future of our city."
Enfield Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration and Business Development, Cllr Alan Sitkin, said: “The Enfield Council and Building Bloqs backed project will provide 300 jobs in the area and create a hub of high quality commercial activity.
“We expect this project to provide 300 jobs within the wider £2.5 billion Meridian Water development which will provide 8,000 homes, 3,000 jobs, a new train station and other community facilities over the next 20 years.”
The Mayor was particularly keen to see proposals that create new open workspaces such as incubators, co-working spaces, maker-spaces and artists’ studios, or secure their long term affordability. This is seen as key to the continued growth of London""s creative economy and its global reputation as a leading city for creativity.
Poplar HARCA (Housing and Regeneration Community Association) has been awarded almost £1.8m to convert 81 underused garages and surrounding land into a new fashion hub, which will include a garment manufacturing unit and incubation space for designers. The scheme will help to provide skills and training opportunities in the local community and is being led in conjunction with the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London. Catalysed by London College of Fashion, UAL’s planned move to Olympicopolis in 2021, the project will form an integral part of the Mayor""s East London Fashion Cluster ambition, which recognises the longstanding heritage of the garment industry and recent growth in the fashion sectors in east London.
Steve Stride, CEO, Poplar HARCA: “The Fashioning Poplar project will create a unique end-to-end opportunity for the fashion sector, combining design, enterprise, tech, making and manufacturing and selling. It will be embedded in the community providing jobs, training and workspace locally, ensuring talent is created and nurtured in this hugely exciting part of East London”.