Rebuilding Riot-Hit London: Funding And Fixing

M@
By M@ Last edited 151 months ago
Rebuilding Riot-Hit London: Funding And Fixing


Adjusted estimates of riot damage costs are in. A cool £200 million. To put this figure into some kind of dubious context, it's enough to buy Fernando Torres four times over, which would leave you with a somewhat unusual selection problem. You could also employ Boris Johnson for a further 1,400 years, if you ignore inflation.

His Blondness (Boris not Torres) today announced a £50 million pot of money to help regenerate areas affected by the riots. It's not clear from which municipal pocket the cash will be extruded, but this is intended as a long-term investment that sounds like it'll stretch into the next mayoral term. Let's have something direct from the horse's mouth:

The new £50 million regeneration fund will invest in larger scale proposals and will build on the momentum created as repair and rebuilding work begins and will ensure the affected areas are not only restored. The result will be places that are better than before in to live, work and invest in. The regeneration proposals will be developed with communities and Councils and we will ensure that contracts awarded for the work go to as many local businesses and employ as many local people as possible. This will also include offering apprenticeships to unemployed people in the affected areas to give them vital skills to move into work.

In the shorter term, rebuilding needs to start quickly. To that end, two architecture grads have set up Riot Rebuild, a site to connect together people affected by the riots with professionals who can help. Kind of like a dating service, matching skills with people who need them. You can find out more about their initiative on the web, Facebook, and Twitter.

Last Updated 11 August 2011