Boris Johnson plans to create a Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership as one of a raft of new bodies set to be responsible for regeneration and public assets in London.

Speaking today at Property Week’s Thames Gateway Forum conference in Canary Wharf, the London mayor said that a new partnership of leaders across London, Kent and Essex would be established to drive growth in the absence of development corporations, which are soon to be axed.

The body, which would hold on to the area’s masterplan and act as a pipeline for public sector funding, would be led by the mayor, working alongside the minister for the Thames Gateway and elected local authority leaders.

It would not have any money to spend itself, but would try to drive national investment. It is set to hold its first meeting in January.

The body would exist among a number of new organisations led by the mayor, who wants to set up a London-wide local enterprise partnership to lead public-private investment in the capital.

Johnson also said he wanted a mayoral development corporation to take over the London assets and liabilities of the Homes and Communities Agency and the London Development Agency, as well as the soon-to-be-abolished London Thames Gateway Development Corporation. His hope is to create this by April 2012, with the Olympic Park Legacy Company also being rolled into the GLA

He said: “There will be a serious economic development body located within the Greater London Assembly that will have the assets to bring forward the housing we need.”

Johnson’s planning adviser Sir Simon Milton said the assets would be used strategically rather than sold. He said: “The mayor, and not a quango, should be responsible for these assets. To force a fire sale would be a bad thing indeed. Land bought at the top of the market should not be sold at the bottom.”

Milton said he was wary of the government creating a complex set of bodies to lead London regeneration. He said: “We don’t need a complex set of funding streams and overlapping partnerships. Ministers need a strong voice for the whole of london if we are going to get enough investment.”

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