Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal, Councillor Stuart King

Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery & Skills, Councillor Manju Shahul-Hameed

Cabinet Member for Culture & Regeneration, Councillor Oliver Lewis

Officer: Director of Growth, Employment & Regeneration, Stephen Tate

Key decision: yes

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To

1.    Approve the amended funding profile for Growth Zone projects as detailed in section 6 of this report; and

2.    Subject to the requirement to comply with the provisions of Part 4G of the Constitution in taking delegated decisions, and the parameters previously approved in the February 2020 Cabinet report ‘Delivering the Growth Zone’  delegate to the Executive Director of Place in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer (Section 151), the Cabinet Member for Resources & Financial Governance, the Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal, the Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery & Skills and the Cabinet Member for Culture and Regeneration authority to make necessary changes to the funding and phasing of the approved Growth Zone projects list. Any such changes will be reported to Cabinet.

The Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal (Councillor Stuart King) drew Members attention to the budget which had been agreed by Council on 8 March and which had included the capital programme. The agreed capital programme had included a number of changes to the Growth Zone funding for the forthcoming year and the report, included within the Cabinet agenda, set out the preliminary headline proposals for the re-profiled scheme.

It was stated that the report reflected the Report in the Public Interest and the work by PwC; and addressed the relevant recommendations. The report, the Cabinet Member stated, also reflected the financial challenges faced by the council and a number of partners, including Transport for London (TfL). It was noted that the Growth Zone delivery was dependent on the town centre economy which had been dramatically impacted during the preceding 12 months due to the pandemic. With that in mind, the Cabinet Member stated that it felt it was timely and prudent to further review the programme to ensure it responded to the current circumstances.

The Cabinet Member highlighted to Members that the report set out that a number of additional reports would be considered by Cabinet at future meetings to consider the proposals in more detail.

It was noted that the town centre economy, and its ability to recover following the pandemic, was critical to the council and the Cabinet Member welcomed the presentation from the Director of Planning & Strategic Transport (Heather Cheesbrough) which set out the council’s emerging vision for the town centre. A copy of the presentation can be viewed online.

It was noted by the Director that the historic Growth Zone vision had focussed on two key sites in the town centre; the Whitgift Centre and Ruskin Square; which were important in terms of how the Growth Zone would work in generating business rates going forward. It was noted that the Ruskin Square site was proceeding well with a new public sector building in development and ongoing positive conversations with the developers. The Whitgift site had, however, been more challenging. It was stated that the Planning Policy Framework had reflected the predicted housing targets, jobs and construction activity from the two schemes.

The changing model of retail had been taking place over a number of years, however, it was noted that the pandemic had accelerated the changes. It was suggested that the changes in retail had led Croydon Limited Partnership (CLP) to review its proposals in 2019/20 alongside the drive for sustainable development.

The Director of Planning & Strategic Transport highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the Growth Zone assumptions and whilst the impact of Covid-19 continued there remained uncertainty as to the long term impact on the town centre. Members were advised that the number of major planning applications submitted to the council had greatly reduced in the last year, particularly applications pertaining to the town centre. This reduction impacted the business rate forecast which underpinned the predicted growth.

Discussions were taking place as to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48