Sadiq Khan to unveil £544m plan to fund London’s Covid recovery
Sadiq Khan will today announce a £544m investment in London’s jobs and high streets to help the capital recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Mayor of London will also call on the government to match his spending plans for the city as he unveils the proposals at the inaugural London Recovery Summit.
Alongside the spending plans, he will also announce an Anchor Institutions’ Charter, which will bring together some of the city’s largest organisations in a bid to create new jobs for young Londoners.
The Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, Transport for London and NHS London are among the employers to sign up to the charter, which will target job opportunities and support to people most affected by the virus and its economic fall out.
The other institutions involved in the charter are the University of London, Association of Colleges, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Film London, Trades Union Congress, Church of England, London Jewish Forum and Muslim Council of Britain.
“Jobs and investment are crucial to getting our city going again, which is why today I’m unveiling a package of measures worth hundreds of millions of pounds that will create jobs and improve the places where we live and work,” Khan said in a statement.
“We are also working with some of the biggest employers in the capital to target job opportunities to where they are needed the most.”
Under the £544m spending plans, London’s utility companies will bring forward an additional £499m of investment to create more than £1,400 jobs for young people and those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) backgrounds.
It will also include a £32m Good Work Fund to support Londoners from the next academic year to gain the skills they need to support the capital’s recovery, and £5m from the European Social Fund to support unemployed people into work.
A further £4m will be spent on a challenge to invite residents and boroughs to come up with ideas for how high streets can meet the needs of a post-Covid world.
Meanwhile, £3m will be allocated to two to four disadvantaged London neighbourhoods to spend on their local environments and climate change and air pollution initiatives.
The rest of the funding will be allocated to voluntary and community groups and projects across the capital.