Jobs plan includes southern boroughs, Mayor confirms, Croydon Advertiser 1st June 2012

Friday, 01 June 2012 00:00

Young people in Croydon & Sutton will benefit from a new job creation programme being implemented by the Mayor of London.

Under the programme, Boris Johnson is intending to create around 200,000 jobs and greatly increase the number of apprenticeships available across the capital.

At last week’s Mayor’s Question Time, he was asked by Steve O’Connell and Sutton’s London Assembly Member to ensure that opportunities would filter out to the two boroughs.

In response, the Mayor said “absolutely” accepting it was vital that in the wake of the riots everyone worked to “sell Croydon around the world as a place of fantastic opportunity”. That opportunity could be built on, he said, with the regeneration money available and the work of a taskforce set up to promote the town.

The Mayor said: “It is a place that will repay investment many times over in the next few years.  It is one of London’s biggest opportunity areas”.

Mr O’Connell said after the meeting: “The Mayor is going to produce 200,000 jobs, which is a very good thing.  I think he accepted my analysis that he is Mayor for all of London and that jobs created must trickle down to boroughs like Croydon and Sutton.  At the end of the day, I will want to hold him to what he has said”.