Regenerating East Manchester

Statement from Leader of Manchester City Council in reaction to Government announcement on the regional casino.

Leader of Manchester City council Sir Richard Leese said: "We will be scrutinising the announcement in detail and keeping all options under review.

"We are disappointed with the Government's announcement. We believe a regional casino provides the best regeneration benefits for East Manchester and we will continue to pursue this. A regional casino will deliver around 3,500 new jobs for East Manchester and an increase in Manchester's GVA equivalent to £1 billion over 10 years.

"We have put irrefutable evidence to the Government that demonstrates a regional casino in a properly regulated environment can bring major benefits to an area like East Manchester, rather than the harm caused by other unregulated forms of gambling such as the internet.

"Manchester's key regeneration objectives remain to bring jobs to deprived communities and to get local people into those jobs. To that end we will engage with Government to achieve our regeneration objectives for the city as a whole and East Manchester in particular, but we need the clearest commitment that any package would deliver the greatest possible benefits.

"We are committed to doing all we can, and we have drawn up a range of regeneration options to benefit local people in East Manchester including the extension of the life of New East Manchester till 2014/15 with an associated budget of £20 million per year; developments at Sportcity to create an additional 1,600 jobs; digital developments with 500 jobs; a national skills centre with 200 jobs; a digital and animation business cluster with 250 jobs and also the relocation of Government functions, including hundreds of jobs for local people."

Media contact:

Janine Watson, tel 0161 234 3337