A scheme to regenerate Brighton and Hove will create new jobs, build new homes and make money.

Millions of pounds will be poured into the city to revamp derelict sites and fight poverty and deprivation.

The cash will come from the people of Brighton and Hove through a new investment scheme.

Residents and organisations can invest in a non-profit-making mutual fund, which will be used to redevelop sites while making money for investors. It is also hoped the scheme will generate civic pride in the area.

Called the Brighton and Hove City Mutual Project, the scheme, to be launched next spring, will be run by the Brighton-based Family Assurance Friendly Society.

It has teamed up with the Brighton and Hove Regeneration Partnership, the city council, the South-East England Development Agency (Seeda) and New Deal in the Communities.

People will be able to invest sums of more than £10 in the fund which will give them a return on their cash while ensuring millions for regeneration.

The emphasis will be on business parks, live-work units and providing new homes for key workers.

Peter Field, who chairs the Regeneration Partnership, said: "It is about giving the people the chance to invest in their own city and get a return for it.

"We don't need a developer's profit. We can spend the money on imaginative solutions and putting up really good buildings as well."

Brighton is already home to a host of technology and leisure businesses that are thriving and money has been poured into tackling the worst deprivation.

But the city still has some of the most serious homelessness and unemployment in Britain.

The mutual project aims to relieve them and, if it works, it will be copied widely elsewhere in the South-East.