Thames Gateway Delivery Plan

Gordon Brown and housing minister Yvette Cooper have revealed how government funding of more than £9billion will be spent on the Thames Gateway Delivery Plan.Gordon Brown said."Our aim is to help create thriving communities with new homes, new jobs and a better environment."

The project aims to build 160,000 new homes, create 225,000 jobs,an increase from the previous government estimate of 180,000 and add £12 billion to the economy by 2016.

The "eco-region" will use environmental measures in the new homes, as well as improvements to existing homes. The idea is to build Thames Gateway with minimal environmental impact, making new homes "carbon-zero" by 2016, with 80% built on previously-developed land.

The area stretches 40 miles from London's Lower Lea Valley east along the Thames into Essex and Kent and will be Europe’s largest regeneration project.

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....We've now set out plans and money to do so - with a new eco-region offering a great quality of life for its inhabitants; with new educational opportunities and transport links as well as affordable homes; and with better training to equip the local workforce to benefit from the 225,000 new jobs in their area."