Health Lottery owner Richard Desmond has pledged to deliver an additional £4.5m to health projects in London by 2016 on top of the £5.5m already raised by the Lottery.

The Lottery has already funded 150 projects in the capital to the tune of £5.5m since it launched in late 2011, but at a visit to a funded project in Shadwell yesterday, accompanied by Mayor Boris Johnson, Desmond announced the pledge to raise a total of £10m by 2016 and said the Lottery was pleased with the progress made so far in the area. 

Money to London projects is distributed via the six community interest companies in the capital which form part of the 51 society lotteries which, combined, comprise the Health Lottery.

Since launch some £44m has been raised for charities by the Lottery, which has come under sustained challenge by National Lottery operator Camelot, with 1,000 projects funded. The total, however, is far shy of the £50m a year the Health Lottery’s launch chief executive estimated it could raise. 

Touring facilities at the Shadwell Community Project with the Health Lottery founder, Boris Johnson said: “Local initiatives like the Shadwell Community Project are at the heart of what makes London a great city. The Health Lottery has already supported a huge variety of excellent schemes across the capital and the pledge to reach £10m by 2016 means hundreds more schemes like this one will help Londoners live healthier, and ultimately happier lives.” 

The Health Lottery has expanded since launching in October 2011 as a weekly draw. It launched a second, mid-week draw and last year bookmakers Coral began taking bets on the outcome of the Health Lottery, offering winners a £1m jackpot for guessing the right numbers, as opposed to the £100,000 netted by jackpot winners of the regular game.