Article content

On the eve of a contentious budget request for downtown spending, a report heading to city politicians Monday is touting new jobs and new businesses in the core.

From 2015 to 2017, about 2,000 more jobs were added to the downtown, the retail vacancy rate dropped from 7.9 per cent to 7 per cent, and the assessment value of the core reached the $1.75 billion mark, the 2017 State of the Downtown Report says.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Downtown report paints positive picture of London's core Back to video

Every two years, the city’s planning department does an economic assessment of the downtown, and the latest couldn’t come at a better time for the management of the London Downtown Business Association (LDBA).

The organization is facing a battle within its membership over its annual budget request, which is also heading to city politicians this week.

“I think the timing was impeccable,” LDBA manager Janette MacDonald said about the release of the downtown report.

“The numbers speak for themselves, the number of people who’ve moved downtown, the number of businesses that are moving into the downtown.”