The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has today announced a £50 million fund to help make major long term improvements to the capital's town centres and high streets damaged by the recent disturbances.

The funding is in addition to the Mayor's £50 million Outer London Fund, designed to grow economic activity and drive employment in parts of London that are benefitting less directly from major infrastructure improvements like Crossrail and the 2012 Games. 20 boroughs have already received £10 million to improve their high streets and town centres. Projects benefitting include expanding Haringey's Green Lanes Food Festival and creating Bromley Town Centre's Heritage Trail and a further £40 million will be awarded later this year.

The new £50 million regeneration fund will invest in larger scale proposals and will build on the momentum created as repair and rebuilding work begins and will ensure the affected areas are not only restored. The result will be places that are better than before in to live, work and invest in. The regeneration proposals will be developed with communities and Councils and we will ensure that contracts awarded for the work go to as many local businesses and employ as many local people as possible. This will also include offering apprenticeships to unemployed people in the affected areas to give them vital skills to move into work.

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Over the coming weeks and months the Mayor and his team will be urgently developing proposals to ensure we maximise the impact of this investment so that these areas are improved and opportunities for economic growth are increased.

The Mayor welcomes the coalition government's plans for a medium term relief to support business and looks forward to working with ministers to see how their package can build on his huge long term investment in regenerating these parts of the capital.

The Mayor said: "We have always recognised the importance of improving London's town centres and clearly after the destruction caused by the recent events across the city this is a bigger challenge than ever. That is why I am allocating £50 million to ensure that these areas are regenerated quickly and transformed into safe, attractive, vibrant and economically successful places to live, work and invest in."

(CD/GK)