The completion of 74 new council homes in Croydon is acting as the launchpad for Croydon’s largest housebuilding programme for decades.
A programme to increase the supply of affordable properties has created the flats, family houses and bungalows at locations throughout the borough with the help of a £2.2million grant from the Greater London Authority through the Mayor’s 2011-15 Affordable Housing Programme.
The latest scheme to be completed and let by the council is a mixed development of modern town houses and flats on the site of the former job centre in Fieldway, New Addington, featuring solar panels and other energy-efficient measures designed to reduce household bills.
“These latest new council homes show our commitment to delivering on our exciting plans to develop hundreds more affordable and market-rate properties in the near future," said Councillor Alison Butler, deputy leader and cabinet member for homes, regeneration and planning.
“I’m particularly pleased that every new council property we build takes another family off our waiting list. This gets people out of unsuitable or temporary accommodation and lets them start to build a new life with the assurance of a council tenancy.”
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP, said: “I’ve prioritised new investment to help regenerate Croydon and the £2.2m of City Hall funding for this programme will help build the new affordable homes that the area so urgently needs.
“With a brand new Westfield shopping centre on the way and one of the capital’s fastest growing tech clusters, Croydon is becoming one of London’s most vibrant town centres as well as a major driver of the London economy.”
The council is currently drawing up an expanded programme of more than 700 new homes on around 50 sites across the borough by 2019.