LPC - 4 Jo Negrini Croydon Council Chief Executive Speaking Photo Image

London’s commuting patterns will change as the lines between where people live and work increasingly blur, Croydon’s Chief Executive has predicted, which will have implications for single use developments, like residential blocks.

Jo Negrini told delegates: “Cities change, and we know people will use them very differently in the future. The premise that people come into central London and commute back out will change, which will be a huge opportunity for outer London as a place people live and work around. The future will be more about blurred lines than it has been in the past 40-50 years.” [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Negrini said there could be a ‘huge opportunity’ for outer London to become a place where ‘people will live, work and play’ in the same place, and Croydon is gearing up for this change. They’re working with architects to design buildings that can flip uses depending on change market requirements: “We’re looking at truly mixed use with many uses in one building.”

The south London borough is looking at applying this approach to the over station development at East Croydon, which it is working on with Network Rail and London Continental Railway (LCR). Negrini said: “We’re looking at different types of uses and starting to blur them to create something quite different.”

She did however admit that Croydon town centre’s flagship Westfield scheme is delayed, but the authority is ‘not too worried’ saying: “We don’t blame them, they are trying to nail down two main anchors.”

Two floors are being added every day at Greystar’s 44-storey town development, which is described as the tallest residential modular construction in the world.

The authority’s development company Brick by Brick has begun handing over its first thousand units, around 55% of which will be affordable. The council has also set up its own architecture practice Common Ground in a bid to cut the amount it pays in design fees.

Increased pressure for housing however in the borough’s suburban areas has sparked strong opposition with one meeting of the full council having attracted more than 100 protestors, with Negrini saying: “If a developer replaces a family home with flats it’s a huge change for people. Outer London is becoming a battleground for these kinds of conversations, and it’s really challenging for us.”

Matthew Essex, Operations Director of Regeneration, Property & Planning at Redbridge Council, said the east London borough is also seeing strong resistance to development.

There had been a ‘near riot’ recently when 300 people protested at the council’s town hall against plans for 90 units of temporary accommodation. He said: “We’ve got to have the narrative of growth pinned down much better and we have to show that investment can bring benefits.”

Essex admitted that Redbridge currently has the third worst housing delivery record in the country, according to Government statistics, with delivery never having recently got close to the 1,123 new home target in the council’s recently adopted local plan.

This lack of delivery translated into high levels of overcrowding in the borough, he said: “It’s symptomatic of a lot of people living together because we aren’t building enough homes.”

In order to spur the development of larger sites, the council is engaged in ‘half a dozen’ separate discussions with potential joint-venture (JV) partners. These JV projects include 800 homes on a green belt site released through the local plan last year, two 30-storey schemes on a town centre site currently occupied by council office buildings and the redevelopment of car parks.

Elected members have concerns about entering into partnerships with the private sector, given controversies over similar tie-ups elsewhere in the capital, but the authority requires additional skills and capacity that partners can provide to bring sites forward.

Essex said around 5,000 new homes can be built on the deliverable land, belonging to the council: “As an authority struggling to deliver anything, having 5,000 units sitting in our back pocket is a real opportunity.”

The council also set up its own development vehicle, called Redbridge Living. The company is just about to submit a planning application fir its private rented scheme and has a pipeline of 800 units on 13 sites. [/emaillocker]