• I AM delighted that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has supported Islington Council’s bid to create more genuinely affordable workspaces in Finsbury Park.

The council has been awarded £1.3million from the Mayor’s Good Growth Fund to deliver more genuinely affordable workspaces. These genuinely affordable workspaces will create exciting new employment and apprenticeship opportunities for local people.

The funding will support emerging tech businesses and the Fashion Village in Fonthill Road, Wells Terrace and Seven Sisters Road. It will help to transform “unloved spaces” on estates, such as disused garages, into affordable workspaces.

Providing affordable workspace is important, as we know that many small businesses find it increasingly difficult to stay in the borough due to increases in rents. We want to protect independent businesses from being priced out.

The funding will support the council’s vision for an inclusive economy that works for everybody. Our vision is for an economy underpinned by the values of social justice.

I am pleased that the Mayor has recognised the role that genuinely affordable workspaces have to play in our vision for an inclusive economy. I am excited to see increased business, employment and apprenticeship opportunities coming into the borough as a result of this funding.

CLLR ASIMA SHAIKH
Labour executive member for economic development, Islington Council