Twickenham residents now stand a greater chance of seeing England play after the Rugby Football Union promised to make more tickets available to locals.

Among the package of community measures agreed as part of a £70m redevelopment of the stadium, which will see Twickenham's capacity increase from 75,000 to 85,000 by 2007, is that the number of tickets for locals will be increased from 50 to 400 per match.

The RFU will also contribute £2.5m to Richmond council to be used for various projects to reduce the impact of the development on the local area. These include measures to improve public transport, signs in the area, CCTV and £100,000 for general improvements to Twickenham town centre.

The new version of the redevelopment is also smaller in scale than the scheme given planning permission by the council last December, so that local residents are not affected too much by the bigger stadium. The number of hotel rooms has been reduced from 200 to 156, the plan for an underground car park has been scrapped and corporate hospitality accommodation has been removed.