Economic regeneration

Hammersmith & Fulham is an important employment location, supporting 110,000 employees and 15,000 self-employed people. With its excellent transport links to central London and Heathrow Airport, the borough attracts both small and medium-sized companies and multinational firms like L’Oreal, Bechtel and Coca-Cola.

Regeneration is a continuing process – the past 15 years have seen significant new developments at Chelsea Harbour, the BBC site and Fulham Broadway tube station/retail centre.

Investment is increasingly finding its way into less established parts of the borough. Between 1999 and 2006 the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) created £27m of opportunities for residents and businesses in disadvantaged wards. A major new housing development is planned on a former industrial site in Sands End, south Fulham, while the White City retail development ('Westfield London') due in 2008 will help to revitalise the north of the borough.

The council and its partners are working to ensure that all members of society can benefit from, and contribute to, growing local prosperity. Hammersmith & Fulham has a strategic approach to regeneration, promoted and managed in partnership with local employers and the community at large. This approach has been successful in securing millions of pounds of government and European funding. 

Current regeneration programmes:

1. Neighbourhood Renewal Fund - Hammersmith & Fulham has been allocated £6.4 million for 2001-2008 to improve core public services in the most deprived neighbourhoods. 

2. Single Programme – the north of the borough has been identified as a priority area for London Development Agency funds as part of its Park Royal/Wembley strategic area programme. Regenasis has been awarded £3.8m funding for 2004-7 to boost employment and business, and develop the area’s media and tourism industries.
White City and Wood Lane is an important development area in the borough with the opening of a new retail centre on Westfield’s White City site due in 2007 and further economic developments expected along Wood Lane. The BBC have opened new offices in the area and are relocating other services to their White City headquarters. These retail and business developments will bring thousands of jobs to the area over the coming years, as well as hundreds of new homes.   

3. European Social Fund (ESF) Objective 3 - is Europe’s main training and employment funding stream. £5.9 million was awarded to organisations in Hammersmith & Fulham in 2000, and a further £5.6 million from 2001-2004, to provide services such as information, advice and guidance to unemployed and underemployed residents. Recipients of funding include Op*Shop, the borough careers and employment centre.
The Equal programme is another European-funded scheme to help excluded groups access employment and low-skilled residents develop new skills.

4. Objective 2 – is a European funding scheme for areas with economic problems, supporting capacity building and business support, infrastructure and premises improvements. Objective 2 status was awarded in West London to wards in Brent, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham, including College Park & Old Oak and parts of Shepherds Bush Green and Wormholt and White City. Applicants in Hammersmith & Fulham secured £1.78m during 2001-2004. 

5. New Deal for Communities - in 2001 the North Fulham NDC area was awarded £44.3 million for a 10-year programme which will bridge the gap between the poorest residents and the most affluent. The NDC’s priorities are crime and community safety; children and lifelong learning; jobs, income and enterprise; environment and housing; community and participation; and health and well-being.