Brown reveals £9bn plans for Thames Gateway

Gordon Brown and housing minister Yvette Cooper have launched the Thames Gateway Delivery Plan, revealing how government funding of more than £9bn will be spent.

The money will be allocated to jobs, education, transport scheme and affordable homes, in line with government aims to create a strong economy, a better quality of life for communities and the development of an eco-region.

The projected number of jobs that will be created by the Thames Gateway totals 225,000 by 2016, up from the original target of 180,000.

Under plans to make Thames Gateway the UK's first-ever eco region, there will be a new Eco-Quarter; retrofitted green improvements to existing homes and the first advice centre from the new Green Homes Service, plus plans for a water-neutral and a zero construction waste target.

Organisations across the project have signed a pledge to achieve regeneration, environmental sustainability, community development and economic opportunity.

Signatories of the Thames Gateway Pledge 2016 include Ken Livingstone; the chairs of the gateway's three sub-regional partnerships who represent every local authority in the gateway as well as private developers; and Sir Robin Wales, on behalf of the five Olympic boroughs.

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said: "Since last year the Government has secured funding for major projects that are transforming the Gateway - the new deal on Crossrail, a new high speed line to London, Paris and Brussels, and London Gateway, the biggest deepwater port in Europe."

"We have already achieved a great deal but we must raise our ambitions and go further and faster.

A £275m investment fund has also been announced. It will be invested over three years and support projects including an Innovation and Learning Centre at London Gateway Port, The Royal Opera House Production Park in Thurrock, and the creation of an International Institute for Sustainability.

The Thames Gateway is Europe’s largest regeneration project.