Executive Mayor of Croydon Jason Perry

The regeneration of Croydon is a priority for me, as we deliver a future vision for this vibrant South London borough, of which we can all be proud. Working with partners, developers, investors and Croydon’s diverse communities is essential to achieving this and is a key component of our new three-year Inward Investment Plan: Unlocking Croydon’s Potential. Croydon’s strategic location as the gateway between London, Gatwick, and the South-East has significantly contributed to our economic success. Every day, over 140,000 people visit our borough, reinforcing its sub-regional economic importance. In 2023, our partnership with London Gatwick generated over £265 million for Croydon’s economy and supported more than 3,600 local jobs.

Historically, Croydon has attracted significant inward investment, particularly around East Croydon station. Our Inward Investment Plan sets out our renewed focus to attract external funding and resources, to develop assets, infrastructure, technologies, and services, truly unlocking Croydon’s potential.

Like many London boroughs, Croydon has faced many challenges, and our plan is upfront about these and how they can be overcome. These include, the council’s financial challenges, vacant retail spaces, businesses struggling with recruitment, perceptions of crime, and the cost of living.

The council has made significant progress in overcoming our financial challenges and this plan is pivotal in restoring pride and confidence in Croydon. We have moved away from bankruptcy and are tightly managing our budget – and the Government has acknowledged our progress in fixing these financial challenges.

As an early step in the development of this plan, the council conducted an economic analysis of Croydon, which takes into account current and near-term economic conditions, as well as key changes and trends in Croydon’s economy during the last five to 10 years. This analysis provides a solid evidence base for investment plans, in contrast to previous investments that led Croydon into difficulty.

The three guiding principles of our Inward Investment Plan are:

• Investment needs to work harder for all: Investment in Croydon must be done responsibly and work for the benefit of communities, residents, workers, and businesses. It must also recognise our collective responsibilities to young people and the generations that will follow us.

• Practical short-term actions are essential to lay the groundwork for long-term positive change: Investors, businesses, and residents are keen to see Croydon Council follow through on its ideas and implement programmes for change. Quick wins combined with concerted effort towards longer term goals are critical.

• Partnership and collaboration are critical to unlocking Croydon’s opportunities and getting the right investment in the right place: Croydon’s strength is its partnerships with investors and partners who are passionate and committed to seeing the borough thrive. The council will play a key role in convening, enabling, advocating and lobbying in support of partnered collaboration and action.

Building on our relationships with local partners – including Develop Croydon, the South London Partnership, Opportunity London, London Partners, Croydon’s Business Improvement Districts and London South Bank University – one of the first steps of the plan is to establish a working group of partners who will bring external expertise to unlock the investment.

Working with the Greater London Authority (GLA) is also crucial to our success.

Howard Dawber, Deputy Mayor of London for Business, on a visit last year, identified Croydon as a ‘high priority’ for investment due to its ‘enormous potential.’ This endorsement underscores the importance of our collaborative efforts to unlock Croydon’s economic potential.

Our priorities are delivering on our Town Centre Regeneration Strategy, creating a new Croydon Economic Strategy with a focused Night Time Economy Action Plan, and establishing a Croydon Funding Group to strategically bid for and deploy external funding.

I am working closely with our partners at Unibail Radamco Westfield (URW) and am eager to see the development of their master plan, which will initiate the transformation of our town centre. This autumn we agreed a £6m investment with URW for a package of improvement measures in Croydon’s North End. These will focus on improving safety, security and cleaning, and removing the Wellesley Road subway and replacing it with a surface level crossing. Croydon also granted planning permission to URW to revitalise the frontage of Croydon’s historic department store, Allders. The front will be sensitively refurbished and new units are set to include five shops and two food and drink units. The plans mark the first phase of improvements to bring the much-loved building back into use.

Fresh Perspectives

In November I will be giving the opening keynote welcome to delegates at Develop Croydon’s Fresh Perspectives conference, being held this year at South London's largest arts centre – Fairfield Halls. I look forward to meeting many of South London’s businesses and investors for some meaningful discussions on the future of Croydon.

Why is the London Living Wage important to you?

Ahead of Living Wage Week (4 to 10 November), Pippa Hack from the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Darek Karwacki from Woolwich Service Users Project (WSUP) and their employee Jas Sahota reflect on the importance of championing the London Living Wage.

Pippa Hack, Director of Regeneration, Enterprise and Skills, Royal Borough of Greenwich: “Tackling in-work poverty to improve standards of living is vital to making Royal Greenwich a more inclusive borough for all.

Good jobs that pay fair wages are at the heart of building an inclusive local economy where our residents and businesses can reach their potential. That’s why we’re asking all employers that can afford to pay the London Living Wage, to please adopt it.

We’re proud to be an accredited Living Wage Employer ourselves since 2013.

We do also understand these are challenging times for businesses too. But accredited businesses across Royal Greenwich tell us that not only is paying their staff fairly the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense.

Living Wage Employers have benefited from improved reputation and made significant savings by reducing absenteeism and turnover and improving productivity. These savings have both helped offset the initial cost of increasing the wage bill and led to significant improvements in services.

The Council is offering grant payments to reimburse 100% of the cost of three years’ worth of accreditation from the Living Wage

Foundation to Royal Greenwich employers. We encourage employers to become accredited and to take advantage of this offer.”

Darek Karwacki, WSUP’s Chief Executive Officer:

“We’re proud to be able to say that staff in our organisation earn, not just the minimum wage, but the real Living Wage. At Woolwich Service Users Project (WSUP) we want people to feel valued. All of our staff are hard working and committed, and this deserves to be acknowledged with a fair day’s pay. If we can ease some of the burden of the rising cost of living by making sure our staff’s pay meets their needs this makes for a happier, more motivated team.

Being an accredited Living Wage Employer improves our reputation in the community and makes us a more appealing partner for businesses looking to donate funds and services to support our charity.

WSUP aims to grow in the future and recruit more staff. Being able to display the Living Wage logo show’s that we’re an attractive, responsible employer. It’s a symbol of our commitment to recruit, retain and reward people with a good salary.

We’re grateful to Greenwich Council’s Business Engagement team for supporting our application and we hope that other organisations in the borough, whatever their size, will apply for accreditation.

Jas Sahota, WSUP’s Head of Operations and Community Relations Manager: “London is a wonderful but expensive city and the increased cost of living is putting a strain on lots of people. It’s great to be part of an organisation that understands this, values its employees and is willing to demonstrate this by committing to the Real Living Wage. The yearly calculation, based on the cost of living, gives me confidence that there won’t be a gap between what I earn and what I need to live on.

Working for a charity that supports people experiencing poverty and homelessness, I see the misery that not having enough money for rent and bills causes on a daily basis. I feel lucky to be in a position where I earn enough to cover the things I need so that I can focus on what I’m passionate about – helping others who aren’t so fortunate.

I hope that other employers will follow WSUP’s example. If we, as a small charity, can do it there’s no reason why they can’t.”