Comments on: Nestlé building to become housing: a sweet deal for Croydon?

By: Saif

Saif — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 19:38:00 +0000

Tom any update about whether this development is still going ahead? It’s been well over 2 years and no further news.

By: visit the up coming post

visit the up coming post — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 19:31:56 +0000

It’s best to investigate this out…

Webpages of desire we’ve got a backlink to…

By: google

google — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:46:52 +0000

google…

Google http://www.google.com…

By: Kake

Kake — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:04:00 +0000

Thank you for the links! Yes, I agree that a bit more openness on the Council’s part would be good here. In the first document you link to, they seem to basically be saying we should just take their word for it.

From my reading of the second document, the Council are saying that they think change of use from office to residential should continue to require planning permission in the Croydon Opportunity Area, because they’re concerned that otherwise we might lose too many office blocks — is that right?

By: Tom Lickley

Tom Lickley — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:27:00 +0000

Hi Kake – With regards to the ‘viability assessment’ you may find this useful https://secure.croydon.gov.uk/akscroydon/images/att1617.pdf at point 2.2 – the viability assessment was done by ‘an independent expert on the council’s behalf’ so I do not believe it is available for viewing. Your guess is as good as mine as to what it means, although I’d imagine it examines a cost/benefit analysis to the Croydon Opportunity Area for St George’s House.

With regards to writing to the council, as permission has already been granted a planning appeal may be a little too late.

For what it’s worth and on further research I think the Council can actually justify a lower than required provision for affordable housing, it just seems the figure is a little too low. I think greater clarification from the Council is needed on why they have taken this step – i.e. detailing what is in the viability assessment and whether they are placing this share of affordable housing elsewhere in the borough.

You may also find this interesting – an application from Croydon Council to remove the Croydon Opportunity Area from the government’s plans with regards to converting office developments into residential, in order to capitalise on the investment potential of the town centre http://www.croydon.gov.uk/contents/departments/planningandregeneration/pdf/exemptionapp.pdf.

By: Kake

Kake — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:12:00 +0000

Thanks for this, Tom — very interesting! A couple of questions:

Regarding the low proportion of affordable housing, you say “The council’s planning committee has justified this by noting a ‘viability assessment’ was undertaken to validate this allowance.” I’m not too clear on what you mean by this; could you explain it, please?

You also end by noting that this proportion is unjustifiably low — is there anything that can be done about this (e.g. writing to the council) or is the decision now fixed and it’s too late to do anything?

By: Kake

Kake — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:09:00 +0000

Vague and possibly unhelpful comment: I think Prospect West is currently being refurbished, though don’t quote me on that — I can’t remember where I read about it. However, last time I went past (a couple of weeks ago) it certainly looked as though there was something going on.

By: Rosie E

Rosie E — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:49:00 +0000

I think it depends what else is currently happening development-wise in Croydon. I’m wondering whether the building on Prospect West (former BT headquarters but has stood empty for ages) is also being converted to flats? It woud be good if these were more affordable to balance out the Nestle ones.