Member Article

New development creates 1,200 local jobs in Croydon

Work to create Cane Hill Park, a new development in Coulsdon, Croydon is set to underpin 1,200 jobs and boost the local economy by £7million a year as well as provide much-needed new homes for the local area.

Five star housebuilders Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes are building up to 675 new homes on the iconic 205 acre site that was previously home to Cane Hill psychiatric hospital and appeared on the front cover of a David Bowie album.

The companies have calculated that 1,200 people will be involved in the construction and sales of the new homes – with a large proportion being locally sourced sub-contractors and tradesmen.

Cane Hill Park Operations Director, James Dunne, said, “As soon as we got work underway on the site we started employing local tradesmen and on top of the obvious benefits of the new homes it’s fantastic that we can create so many new jobs in the area.

Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes have also estimated that more than £7million will be spent by the new residents in local shops and services every year.

James Dunne said, “In addition to the huge investment in the local area which comes when people first move into new homes and buy their furniture and white goods, the new families will be spending millions in local shops and on local services every year.

“With demand for new homes in the area growing, we hope to open the new site for buyers early next year and hopefully the existing community will quickly see a real lift to the local economy.

The site had been unused since 1991, when the hospital closed, with parts of it also destroyed by a fire in 2010.

The new development, Cane Hill Park, will put the old hospital site and the 173 acres of agricultural land around it to productive use, by providing hundreds of new homes and creating a new sustainable community for Croydon. The site is so large it could fit more than 100 football pitches inside its bounds.

Cane Hill Park forms a key part of the Mayor of London’s commitment to dispose of all public land in his ownership by the end of his mayoral term in 2016. At present, 99 per of his land has been released.

The development also includes 3,000 square metres of office space, the retention and refurbishment of three locally-listed historic buildings, new access and connections with Coulsdon Town Centre, and new public open space, with this element alone potentially supporting up to 350 new jobs.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Barratt Homes .