Khan calls for ‘people-powered regeneration’ as crowdfunding initiative opens

Communities in London can now bid for funding from the Mayor’s Crowdfund London initiative to transform their local area.

Crowdfund London helps raise money for enterprising community-led projects across the capital and sees the Mayor of London and the London Economic Action Partnership  (LEAP) pledging funding to a range of local community-led initiatives to improve local areas.

Mayor Khan launched this year’s funding round earlier this week at Tottenham Café Connect in Haringey, which has been transformed from a dilapidated bowling club into a thriving community hub thanks to Crowdfund London.

The café is now somewhere for the local community to meet, cook and share food grown in the garden, learn new skills and also provides activities for young people in the area.

This is the sixth round of Crowdfund London and last year, the Mayor pledged nearly £600,000 to 26 local projects in 19 boroughs.

Civic crowdfunding platform Spacehive is delivering the programme and entrants have until 1 May to apply for up to £50,000 each in funding.

All campaigns rely on additional pledges from the crowd to meet their overall target.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: ‘This is people-powered regeneration in action and we want more Londoners with great ideas for improving their local communities to get involved.

‘I’m also calling on businesses to join me in supporting these brilliant projects, which enable our city’s diverse communities to play an active role in shaping the future of their local areas.

‘We want to harness the entrepreneurial spirit our city is famous for and apply it to the challenges and opportunities faced by communities across the capital, so I urge anyone with a creative project to apply to this year’s crowdfunding programme.’

Leyla Laksari, founder and CEO of Living Under One Sun – which is behind Tottenham Café Connect – said: ‘We are extremely grateful to the Mayor for his support through his crowdfunding programme.

‘With this support we have created a welcoming place in our neighbourhood for people of all backgrounds and ages to come together and share stories, skills and ideas, as a way of having a positive role in shaping Tottenham’s future.’

Other projects given funding include a new village hall for Clapton Common, a new green space at St Mary’s Catholic School in Chiswick and Kitchenette Karts, a healthy, sustainable fish and chip truck in the heart of the East End which creates pathways into entrepreneurship for young East Londoners.