The London Borough of Croydon has formally adopted a supplementary planning document (SPD) aimed at helping it deliver 10,000 new homes on suburban windfall sites by 2036 through intensifying the use of such sites.

The document is intended to provide “guidance for suburban residential developments and extensions and alterations to existing homes across the borough”.

Approximately 10,000 of the council’s 2018 local plan housing target of 32,890 new homes by 2036 will be “delivered through small scale suburban developments (windfall developments)”.

According to a report considered by the council, this “will result in an evolution of the existing character of suburban streets”. “Increased density of homes can impact on the amenity of existing residents if not properly managed through the planning process”, the report said.

Other guidance focuses on topics including: optimising sites, character, massing, materials and external appearance, site layout and servicing, landscaping and outdoor amenity space.

It fleshes out a local plan policy which identifies four “Areas of Focussed Intensification” across the borough. These, the document says, are “areas with established infrastructure but relatively low density and the potential to accommodate a significant increase in residential development”.

The areas are: the area around Kenley station; the area around Forestdale Neighbourhood Centre; Brighton Road (Sanderstead Road) Local Centre with its setting; and settings of Shirley Local Centre and Shirley Road Neighbourhood Centre.

A statement from the council said the new SPD “would mean planning applications would be determined using detailed and area-specific guidance and would help improve the quality of developments coming forward in the suburbs”.

If you have a site within the London Borough of Croydon, now is the time to come and speak to us. We can provide you with honest initial planning advice, and should there be potential for development, we can provide you with a strategy and quote to move the project forward.

Contact our London Office today!

3 April 2019