Community Benefits

Emirates Stadium has brought massive benefits to Islington. When the council granted permission for the stadium to go ahead in 2002, we made sure it would bring massive regeneration benefits across the borough for residents, businesses and visitors to Islington. This is known as a Section 106 planning agreement.

Some of the benefits include:

Employment: Over 2,600 new jobs created by the development, including more than 1,800 long term positions.

Community facilities: A £60m waste and recycling centre in Lough Road has already seen recycling rates in Islington increase by 14%, and as part of the centre, an award-winning interactive education centre in partnership with the Science Museum has been created. A new Arsenal Learning Centre developed at Highbury Stadium provides local people a place to go for learning opportunities and IT access.

Affordable housing: 2,500 new and refurbished homes is part of the wider development of the stadium, of which 1,000 are affordable homes. This represents much needed new housing in the borough which is the smallest and second most densely populated in London.

Street environment: £350,000 has so far been spent on making the area safer for residents and pedestrians, such as CCTV, new signage, installation of tactile paving and dropped kerbs and the maintenance of overhanging trees on route to the new stadium.

Finsbury Park Central Area: £300,000 has been spent on redevelopment at Finsbury Park station.

Arsenal Business Enterprise Team: Set up by the council in 2005 to help local businesses obtain maximum economic benefits from the Arsenal development. It has succeeded in brokering contracts of £8.8m and has now been extended to other massive developments taking place in Islington and Camden.

Construction works: Set up in 2005 to help channel local people into construction jobs and training, more than 400 people have been given jobs or received training.

Work IS: Created in 2005, Work IS brokers the relationship between employers and Islington residents looking for jobs. Acting as a one-stop shop, employers deal with just one organisation yet are able to tap into an extensive pool of local labour, and so far over 300 jobs have been brokered.

Discussions on improving public transport links are ongoing. There is continued negotiation regarding the possible upgrade of Drayton Park Station.

For more information on Section 106, please contact the planning team by emailing planning@islington.gov.uk or telephone 020 7527 2000.