One hundred community leaders have launched an impassioned appeal outside the US Embassy site to ensure the thousands of jobs and billions of pounds created through the Nine Elms development do not bypass the borough.

Over the next decade Nine Elms, will be completely transformed with £1bn being spent on 16,000 new homes, a redeveloped Battersea Power Station, two new Tube stations and the new US Embassy creating 25,000 jobs.

Tuesday’s demonstration, organised by London Citizens, called on developers to ensure 50 per cent of new jobs go to Wandsworth and Lambeth residents.

An army of aspiring workers in hard hats welcomed developers by singing Star-Spangled Banner, to mark American Independence Day.

London Citizens has also agreed with Wandsworth Council to hold recruitment fairs and is demanding all workers are paid at least £8.55 per hour, the London Living Wage.

Ben Pollard, from London Citizens, said: “We are excited by the opportunity, but want to do our bit to help developers live up to their promises and get local people into the newly created jobs.

“Otherwise Nine Elms will be yet another redevelopment that fails local people.

“We have jobseekers ready to work, we have volunteers ready to mentor – all we need is the support from developers and access to the jobs.”

Joining the demonstration were church leaders, representatives from schools, and community organisations.

Canon Simon Butler, St Mary’s Church Battersea said: “London Citizens got 1,200 local people into Olympics jobs and my church has many skilled and enthusiastic people eager to support their neighbours into work at Nine Elms.”

The plans have also received further support from Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth Council and co-chair of the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership.

He said: “Every planning consent we have granted in Nine Elms includes an agreement with the developer to provide jobs, apprenticeships and trainee positions for local people.

“Over the course of this 20-year development programme we are talking about thousands and thousands of new jobs and apprenticeships for the local community.”

The demonstration coincided with two significant steps in the multi-billion pound Nine Elms development.

On Tuesday the Mayor of London Boris Johnson oversaw the official topping out ceremony of Riverlight, the first new development to regenerate Nine Elms, which will provide more than 250 jobs.

Today, Prime Minister David Cameron attended the official “groundbreaking” ceremony at Battersea Power Station, formally marking the beginning of the development process.

Those Wandsworth and Lambeth residents who want to learn more about employment opportunities in Nine Elms should email jobs@nineelmsonthesouthbank.com.