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London Mayor announces £20m funding for community projects

A cake stall in Borough Market, London. Credit: David Iliff (CC BY-SA 3.0).

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has made £20m of funding available to support London’s town centres, high streets and local regeneration projects.

The funding will go towards the third round of his £70m Good Growth Fund, which aims to support growth and community development in London.

To date, the Good Growth Fund – which is delivered by the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) – has awarded just over £50m to 108 local projects.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: ‘I’m proud to support London’s markets and in the next round of my Good Growth Fund, I want to continue supporting innovative projects which celebrate London’s diversity.

‘This funding is part of my wider strategy to improve town centres and high streets. I am determined to address some of the big challenges facing our communities and ensure Londoners have a big say in the future of their city.’

The Good Growth Fund is London’s biggest regeneration fund which started in 2017 and is set to run until June 2021.

The fund provides funding, regeneration advice, design support and knowledge sharing to public, private and third sector organisations to support their projects.

The fund’s three strategic aims are to empower people, make places better and healthier to live in and to help businesses and social enterprises contribute to their local areas.

Applications for the third round of the Good Growth Fund will open in September, with further announcements set to follow later this summer.

Khan made the announcement at the opening plenary of the 10th International Public Markets Conference in front of global representatives from the market sector.

London now has over 300 street and covered markets, with 15 of them having benefited from £12.4m in funding since Khan came in office.

These include £2m for Bermondsey’s Blue Market, and almost £3m for Wandsworth’s Mission Kitchen, which provides affordable kitchen space to food start-ups and SMEs and kitchen training for Londoners of all backgrounds.

Kelly Verel, vice president for the New York non-profit Project for Public Spaces, said: ‘Markets provide economic opportunities for vendors, especially women, minorities, and immigrants who often have a harder time getting a start in business.

‘And because markets draw people to a public space, they also bring increased economic benefits to nearby businesses and strengthen their community’s social capital.

‘It is exciting to see a global city like London go beyond rhetoric, and show their commitment to public markets at this level.’

At the event, Khan also announced the expansion of his Tomorrow’s Market initiative, a business support programme which aims to attract market traders into the sector.

The programme will have an expanded budget of £250,000 and will look to support even more traders in markets across London, the mayor said.

Earlier this year NewStart reported on the controversial redevelopment of Elephant and Castle which traders said will disrupt their businesses and damage local communities.

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