The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has announced creation of the Crossrail 2 Growth Commission to promote potential opportunities across the £20 billion project.

Business leaders back the scheme and in an open letter to the Times newspaper, called on the Government to use the Comprehensive Spending Review to provide the funding needed to begin development.

The Commission will help maximise the benefit of the new railway by bringing together the London boroughs, county councils outside London and other key business and development stakeholders along the route to work together on how the railway can best support housing and job creation.

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Boris Johnson said: "Crossrail 2 will help realise London’s full economic potential, increasing the nation’s productivity and creating thousands of new jobs and homes.

"Major projects take time to plan and prepare and with Crossrail 1 nearing completion, we must move quickly to the next transformational growth project which could see even more benefits delivered.

"Crossrail 2 will support up to 200,000 more homes and jobs, adding billions of pounds to the national economy and ensuing a prosperous future for the whole country"

The development of Crossrail 2 will support the UK engineering, construction and manufacturing sectors with a supply chain stretching across the country.

The project has the potential to create 60,000 full-time jobs, in addition to the 18,000 employed directly during the peak of development and over 1,300 new jobs that will be created to operate Crossrail 2.

Michele Dix, TfL’s Managing Director for Crossrail 2, said: "Crossrail 2 is an essential piece of national infrastructure, which will relieve pinch points on national rail and Tube networks, unlocking jobs, homes and growth. The wider economic returns of Crossrail 2 will help secure London's economic potential and will generate tax revenues that will pay back the investment many times over."

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