Schemes to benefit all Londoners including BAME communities
Range of cultural, employment and green infrastructure projects supported
Funding part of £70m investment over four years
Sadiq Khan today awarded £24 million of funding to projects from across the capital that will enable local people to take an active role in the regeneration of their communities.
More than 200 bids for funding were made to the Mayor’s Good Growth Fund, delivered through the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP), and 27 are now being taken forward, with several organisations receiving funding in the next few months.
All of the successful projects will deliver social and economic improvements including investment in community assets, workspaces, green infrastructure and cultural venues.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am using this funding to challenge preconceptions about how regeneration takes place. I want to give all Londoners – regardless of background – the opportunity to be actively involved in their city and have more places to live, learn, work and play.
“The projects I announced funding for today will help us to tackle inequality, strengthen civil society, and ensure the benefits of regeneration are felt by all.”
A wide range of cultural projects and organisations were successful in their bids for funding. They include:
- The delivery of a dedicated HQ for the Southbank Centre’s new education programme and an expanded and improved skate space.
- The creation of a new creative digital industry workspace and community enterprise and skills hub at Waterloo Works.
- The redevelopment of the 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning centre in Herne Hill.
- Funding for Lower Lea Threads, which will assist the Mayor’s efforts to establish a fashion district in east London.
- Investment in Mountview, a world-leading drama school and provider of high quality arts, education, skills-building and wellbeing activities in south London also made a successful bid for funding, which will actively support groups including Londoners of a black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) background.
These projects demonstrate the important role that culture has to play in the regeneration of communities, highlighting the Mayor’s commitment to culture and the creative industries across the city.
Sadiq has invested more in culture than any other Mayor, most recently announcing the results of the hotly contested London Borough of Culture award, which saw £3.5 million going to culture projects in eight boroughs across the capital, including the two winning boroughs Waltham Forest (London Borough of Culture 2019) and Brent (London Borough of Culture 2020).
Other successful bids for funding will support the development of projects with potential to share economic growth with many more Londoners. They include:
- Funding for Connecting Wood Green, which will help create new affordable workspace and support small businesses.
- Investment in Inclusive Growth in Finsbury Park, which will provide affordable studio and workspace for community groups and disadvantaged residents who will be supported to set-up and grow their own businesses.
- Support for the Participatory City Foundation, Barking & Dagenham, which will be used to help develop a warehouse that will provide a range of facilities for local users, including a metal and wood workshop, industrial kitchen facilities, fabric workspace and teaching space.
- Funding for Mission Kitchen at New Covent Garden Market, which will be used to offer affordable kitchen space to food start-up businesses and professional training to Londoners from all backgrounds.
The Mayor launched the Good Growth Fund to help deliver the objective of ‘good growth’ as outlined in ‘A City for All Londoners’, which set out plans to create a city where no community is left behind and everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
LEAP Board Member, Natalie Campbell, said: “The investments announced today include exciting, innovative and collaborative proposals which will go towards improving the landscape and opportunities for London’s unique communities to thrive.”
Case studies
Lower Lea Threads – awarded £1,993,792
Delivering on a wider Action Plan to spearhead innovation and inclusive growth of the fashion sector in East London, Lower Lea Threads aims to address structural and socio-economic challenges: the shortfall of affordable workspace for a range of fashion business types across the sector pipeline; access to finance for sustainable and conscientious fashion entrepreneurs; and critical skills and recruitment gaps in the industry - developing a targeted training provision for entry level, and mid-high-level head office and digital skills, along with a new 'Good Work Standard' for the industry. The submission was supported by a broad partnership including British Fashion Council, UK Fashion and Textiles Association (UKFT), London College of Fashion, LLDC and Poplar HARCA and The Trampery.
Mountview – awarded £843,543
Mountview is a world-leading drama school and public provider of high quality arts, education, skills-building and wellbeing activities. This new mixed-use cultural space in Peckham will bring an extensive offering to south London. By engaging with the local community of Peckham as well as people from lower socio-economic groups, BAME groups, disabled people and NEETS, Mountview will offer opportunities for skills development, creative learning, new jobs, work placements, apprenticeships and affordable workspace. Good Growth funding will contribute towards the fit-out costs across the publicly accessible parts of the building.
Notes to editors
- More information on the Good Growth Fund can be found at: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/regeneration/funding-opportunities/good-growth-fund-supporting-regeneration-london.
- The Good Growth Fund provides capital funding from sources including the Local Growth Fund and European Social Fund, as well as expert regeneration advice, design support and knowledge sharing opportunities.
- The Fund targets equality, inclusion and citizen-led regeneration, by supporting three strategic themes:
- Empowering People – Providing opportunities for everyone to take part in the economic and social life that London has to offer. Building an equal city and more integrated communities by fostering active citizenship and collaboration at a neighbourhood level.
- Making Better Places – Enabling an inclusive city of pleasant and healthy places, offering a mix of young and old, of housing tenures, commercial space, and access to high quality cultural, recreational and green spaces. Building on existing assets and qualities to make the city more liveable, making the best use of buildings, the spaces between buildings and supporting infrastructure.
- Growing Prosperity – Tackling barriers to businesses starting and scaling up. Growing more businesses and social enterprises that contribute to their local areas and improving digital connectivity. Finding new ways of boosting productivity, and broadening employment opportunities for London’s residents.
- The Good Growth Fund offers a range of funding and support to suit different projects, which together builds a broad and balanced programme of high-quality regeneration activities. This includes capital and limited revenue grants, repayable capital grants, or a mixture of both:
- Capital grants: up to £5 million to deliver place-shaping and development projects;
- Repayable capital grants: between £500,000 and £2 million; and
- ESF revenue grants: between £500,000 and £2 million to deliver employability and skills projects.
- The Good Growth Fund boosts and complements other GLA and TfL programmes by investing in London’s housing, transport infrastructure, skills, culture and environment, as well as regeneration activities by local authorities, the private and third sector.
- In this round the fund aligned with the Mayor’s Greener City Fund, enabling £804,000 to be awarded to co-fund nine of the Good Growth Fund projects (supporting additional green infrastructure elements, including incorporating large-scale sustainable urban drainage, creating green walking routes and improving access to green space).
- The first round of the funding will support 54 projects. In addition to the 27 projects awarded a share of £24 million, a further 27 projects will receive a share of £1.6 million Development Funding to help scope and define projects further.
- Projects awarded through the first round of the Good Growth Fund: