Eden Project North: Boris Johnson promises funding for project

Funding for the Eden Project North will be made available as long as a "proper business case" is submitted to the government, Boris Johnson has said.

The prime minister said Whitehall is going to "go ahead and support" the £125m project in Morecambe, Lancashire.

Bosses behind the eco-tourist attraction want to submit a bid for £50m to the Levelling Up Fund by July.

Morecambe MP David Morris said the Mr Johnson's words were "very encouraging".

Lancaster City Council approved plans for the project, which promises a combination of education, entertainment and ecology, in January.

The construction will include three giant seafront shell-shaped pavilions on the town's seafront.

Mr Johnson told BBC Radio Lancashire he had raised funding for the venture directly with Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

"We are going to make the funding available but we still need to see the proper business case," he said.

Morecambe MP David Morris said: "I don't think anything is a done deal in government.

"But when you have the prime minister saying that he is positive it is going to happen, you can't get more of an endorsement than that; that the government are going to look favourably on it providing every box is ticked."

The Conservative MP said work on the project could start by the end of the year.

The remainder of the cost will come from already-identified private and philanthropic funding sources, a spokesman has previously said.

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