Croydon can lead the way in providing the “good growth” that London needs to become a fairer city according to a senior figure at City Hall.
In his opening address to this year’s Develop Croydon Conference, Jules Pipe – deputy mayor of London for planning, regeneration and skills – stressed the GLA’s focus on making growth work for all Londoners.
“The future of places such as Croydon are so much more than simply development,” said Mr Pipe as he launched the Placemaking Croydon debate in The View, a meanwhile use marketing suite in the Whitgift Tower.
“It is about shaping and improving London’s places and town centres so that they work better for all of our communities.
“Sadiq Khan’s election as Mayor has established a focus at city hall about how we can make London and more equitable city. We want to ensure than economic and social opportunities are shared amongst absolutely everyone here in London.
“There’s a challenge to define what constitutes good growth – what will benefit all those Londoners. It is important regeneration is something all Londoners feel a part and not something from which they are excluded.”
Mr Pipe stressed the importance of public realm in placemaking and welcomed the introduction of Croydon’s place review panel by the local authority to raise the quality of new developments.
The Croydon metropolitan centre has a key role to play in developing good growth for Londoners,” he added.
“At city hall we recognised that excellent progress has been made since the adoption of the Opportunity Area Planning Framework in 2013.
“The public realm should fulfil its potential as a place of excitement, learning and discovery and here in Croydon there is a discernible change.
The areas around East and West Croydon train stations have been transformed – both in terms of their visual appearance but also their functionality, making them more welcoming and people-friendly points of arrival.
“Stretching further afield, large sections of the local high street network – in particular the South London Restaurant Quarter and London Road, which sadly were particularly affected by the riots in 2011, have been improved to support small business and residents and really foster a sense of community and civic pride.
“Culture is another cornerstone in Croydon’s placemaking and contributes to improving people’s quality of life. The redevelopment of Fairfield Halls will rejuvenate the cultural quarter a regional destination anchored by very significant institutions with better connections to and through the area resulting in an animated well-usedpublic realm.
“At the same time, and with the support of council and city hall, the fast growing digital industry has really established a bespoke Croydon presence at the tech hub. More office accommodation and housing is taking shape at Ruskin Square, including the pop-up food market at Boxpark. These are really good indicators of what a healthy mixed use town centre can look like.
“But much more needs to be done over the coming years so that Croydon can fulfil its potential and continue to establish itself as a place where people want to live, work and where they want to socialise and do business.”
Mr Pipe said the creation of the Croydon Growth Zone, funded through the uplift in business rates resulting from development in a designated area, would provide early investment in critical projects including public realm, transport, healthcare and energy.
“This is going to be critical to unlocking the potential further housing and economic growth,” said Mr Pipe. “That’s going to mean 10,000 new homes and 23,000 jobs which can be directly influenced by these improvements.”
City Hall’s dedicated regeneration team will continue to work closely with the borough on the delivery of the growth zone and to see these outcomes realised. We want to ensure that the design quality of the forthcoming development and infrastructure projects continue to meet the standards required to achieve the transformational change in this metropolitan centre that we all want to see and that the golden thread linking strategy and delivery isn’t lost.
I welcome Croydon Council’s plans for a dedicated place review panel to provide locally sensitive expert advice to the council and development community to raise the quality of new schemes. I would like to finish by congratulating Councillor Tony Newman and Jo (Negrini) and her team for their leadership of the regeneration of Croydon. At City Hall we are really excited about Croydon’s future with so many things happening here. And so therefore I am delighted to open this year’s Develop Croydon Conference.