The
deputy prime minister’s plans for growth along the Thames Gateway corridor
would create 232,000 jobs and 128,000 homes by 2016, new figures show.
Thames
Gateway, the biggest of four growth areas earmarked by for tackling chronic
housing shortages in London and the South East by John Prescott, will see jobs
growth of nearly 50 per cent, planning bodies said yesterday.
London
will take up 150,000 of the new jobs, with 40,000 headed for north Kent
and 42,000 for south Essex.
Five
developments at various stages of progress will drive the jobs growth,
including Canary
Wharf,
Stratford
City
and the Greenwich
Peninsula.
New
jobs can also be expected to support the population growth, which would rise by
up to 350,000.
While
south Essex is set to create
26,500 homes and north Kent
43,000, Ken Livingstone’s London Development Agency has calculated that a
minimum of 59,000 homes could be achieved by 2012.
By
2016, that could rise to 91,000 depending on how much transport infrastructure
is delivered on time. Those projects include Crossrail,
the East London Line extension and Thameslink 2000.
