The planned Olympic stadium in east London would be part of a "lasting legacy", bid leaders promised.
A schoolboy and a union boss joined forces with the London mayor and an Olympic champion to pledge a lasting legacy from the 2012 Games.
Today mayor Ken Livingstone and bid chairman Lord Sebastian Coe signed an open letter promising local jobs, affordable homes and training if the city is chosen to host the Olympics.
The pledge is a response to a video-letter by community campaigners London Citizens, who voiced concerns that a London Games would fail to uplift poor communities.
"I will be 26 years old in 2012," said London Citizens student leader and sixth form pupil Gregory Nicholls. "I would love an Olympics I can be proud of, and I would love an Olympics that brings economic prosperity to London."
London Citizens is an alliance of over 60 schools, faith groups, trade unions and charities.
The mayor said the issues raised by them were "central considerations" to the bid, which is due to be submitted to the International Olympic Committee in less than a week. "We want to ensure that Londoners receive real benefits from the Games."
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The letter includes commitments to:
Promote the use of local labour.
Train local people to do those jobs, especially construction work.
Build at least 4,500 affordable homes, half of those in the Olympic Park.
Investigate the potential for mutual home ownership to make the houses affordable to key workers.
Create sporting venues to be used by all.
A London Games would create at least 11,000 jobs, most of which will be long-term, Lord Coe added.
Rachel Featherstone, sixth form pupil at Trinity Catholic School in Woodford Green and London Citizens activist, called the pledge a "first stepping stone". She and her friends joined the campaign as they "will be the ones looking for homes and jobs" in 2012.
"It does include us, so we should get involved."
Rev. Jan Atkins, minister at Bryant Street Methodist Church and member of London Citizens, added: "We all want to see London win the bid; but we also want to see it bring riches, and not just rich people, to the more deprived areas of the Olympic zones."
Mick Connolly, regional secretary for the Trade Union Congress, also backed the bid. "Working closely with unions was critical to delivering every construction project on time and on budget and with a superb safety record in Sydney," he said.
Lord Coe thanked them for their support and urged the whole UK to back the Games. Public support for the bid in Scotland and Northern Ireland rose "quite dramatically" from "lukewarm", he said.
"I am committed to delivering a lasting legacy from a London Olympics - but we can only deliver this if London wins the right to host the Games."
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