Mayor of London Boris Johnson has assured the property industry that he is "a friend to business" by putting his weight behind the fight against empty rates and offering support for new methods of funding.

Mr Johnson said he would welcome discussions on innovative funding methods. The British Property Federation is set to publish a report on tax increment financing (TIFs), an American model for funding regeneration by borrowing against future tax revenue.

The mayor also admitted he was unaware of "pitiful" gesture made by the government in offering firms an empty rates holiday for properties with a rateable value below £15,000.

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Standing firm on the planned Crossrail business rate levy which he said was "morally and intellectually justified", he promised to be fair and to do what he could to encourage projects to go ahead. It followed debate over the mayor's recent objection to a Terrace Hill office development in Victoria. The objection has been withdrawn after an agreement for what Johnson called a "trifling" extra payment for Crossrail was reached.

Addressing the Movers & Shakers event at the Dorchester Hotel in London, Mr Johnson also called for the 500-acre Olympics Park to be extended into a large innovation park allowing London to become a leading player in sustainability and specifically retrofitting buildings.

"For the first time in a generation Londoners would be able to say to their children there are major opportunities to become engineers in the City," he said.

Speaking about his proposals to remove the 50% affordable housing rule imposed by his predecessor, Mr Johnson said that plans could go ahead without waiting until the revised London Plan was published in 2012. He called for any developers keen to work on housing projects to contact City Hall and discuss what affordable housing regulations and land "de-risking" applied.

(CD/JM)