SPURS have submitted a bid for public money to help build a new stadium in Tottenham.

The club has asked for money from the Government's Regional Growth Fund for the Northumberland Park Project - to build a 56,000-seater stadium in north Tottenham.

The club believes the stadium would help unlock private sector jobs growth and drive regeneration in one of the most deprived areas of the UK.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said of the stadium plan: “It would directly create thousands of new private sector jobs, attract millions of pounds of additional expenditure in the local economy and lever further private sector investment into the area.

“As importantly, it would also protect the hundreds of current club jobs, its existing economic impact and the valuable work of the club's charitable foundation in the local communities, by enabling us to stay in our current location.

“Quite simply the club is the only private entity looking to invest on this scale in the borough and reverse decades of under-investment."

The announcement on Friday, July 1, was the first indication Spurs are prepared to look again at building its new stadium in Tottenham.

Mr Levy had previously said the Northumberland Park scheme was too expensive, but an injection of public funds would be likely to change his mind.

The news was welcomed by Haringey Council leader Claire Kober and MP for Totttenham David Lammy, who have both been vocal opponents of the club's failed bid for the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.

Cllr Kober said: “The council and club are doing everything possible to make this scheme a reality, but the hard fact is that additional public sector financial support is needed to stimulate regeneration in this area.

“Without this will be difficult for the scheme to provide the catalyst to economic growth and job creation in an area of high unemployment.”

If approved, the money would help pay for a package of infrastructure improvements, including train station upgrades, new public spaces, restoring listed buildings and fixing the roads.

A major stalling point had been that the club would have to pay for much of this work.

The bid came a day after a bid for the Upper Lee Valley to be designated an enterprise zone was handed into City Hall.

Politicians are pushing for the Government and Mayor of London Boris Johnson to designate the area, including Tottenham and Edmonton, to allow major financial incentives to draw big businesses in.