On 16 July, Develop Croydon held an Investor breakfast at AECOM’s HQ in London to launch the new platform and brand, Invest In Croydon, designed to attract investment, support business growth and showcase the borough’s economic opportunities.

The initiative is a collaboration between Croydon Council and the not-for-profit Develop Croydon Forum, with the new brand and platform delivered by Croydon-based place marketing agency White Label Creative.

Katharine Glass, Director, White Label Creative, provided an introduction: “16 years ago we founded a Croydon-based marketing agency called White Label Creative. In November 2010, a few months later, we decided that we would effectively white-label ourselves to a new initiative that we hoped would change perceptions of Croydon to encourage renewed economic growth and regeneration and in partnership with a group of developers and other key stakeholders, we launched Develop Croydon.

“Today, Develop Croydon is a community, not-for-profit community interest company, and continues to lead a collaborative approach to showcasing Croydon as a great place to live, work, visit, and invest. That’s done through many, many partners, many of whom are in the room today. Today is a new milestone as we launch a new website in partnership with Mayor Perry and all of our partners. So, I want to thank everybody who’s been on our journey this far for your continued support.”

Richard Plant, Chair, Develop Croydon, continued: “What we now have is a massive focus on refurbishment and reuse, keeping existing buildings and refurbishing them, or you could say investing in them.

“So we thought we need a bit of a change. We can’t continue as Develop Croydon when so little development is happening. We need to support the investment message by aligning ourselves to attract inward investment into the town.

“Which is why we are rebranding Develop Croydon into Invest Croydon, so that we can encourage a broader range of investment, not just redevelopment, but obviously still focused on regeneration. We’re also looking forward to new infrastructure improvements, the bridge opening, the resurgence of the Brighton Mainline improvements, and the regeneration of our town centre.”

Executive Mayor of Croydon Jason Perry said: “Today’s launch of Invest Croydon is an important moment. It builds on more than 15 years of White Label Creative and Develop Croydon championing this borough, bringing together developers, businesses, and investors, helping to showcase opportunities and keeping Croydon firmly on the map. And today marks the next chapter. Invest in Croydon gives us a stronger platform to tell our story, promote our opportunities, and send a clear message that Croydon is very much open for business.

“Invest in Croydon is about far more than promoting development opportunities. It’s about presenting a clear, confident picture of everything our borough has to offer. It brings together our strengths as a place to invest, to do business, to innovate, and to grow. Whether someone is looking to relocate a business, invest in commercial property, develop new homes, create jobs, or establish a new enterprise. Invest in Croydon provides a single place to understand the opportunities that are available. At a time when towns and cities are competing harder than ever for investment, we need to tell our story clearly, consistently, and confidently.

“Let’s seize the moment. Let’s invest in Croydon.”

Croydon is London’s largest borough by population, with nearly 400,000 residents and more than 16,000 businesses already based there. More than £1.2 billion of inward investment has come into the borough during Mayor Perry’s first term. The Council is also strengthening ties with London Gatwick through an Economic Growth Charter and supporting residents into employment through the £500,000 Executive Mayor’s Employment Fund, targeted at young people, care-experienced young people, veterans and residents experiencing homelessness.

At the meeting, the Executive Mayor of Croydon set out progress on town centre regeneration driven by current targeted investment. He pointed out that the John Whitgift Foundation has agreed the sale of its freehold interest in the Whitgift Centre to Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW). He described it as simplifying ownership of one of the town centre’s most significant regeneration sites and clearing a path for the North End masterplan, which also covers Centrale and the Allders building. The plan moves the town centre beyond a 20th-century retail model toward a mixed-use district of homes, shops, workspace and public space.

Alongside the North End proposals, Mayor Perry noted the revival of Allders Parade, improvements to Dingwall Road and Minster Green North End, a new Wellesley Road pedestrian crossing, and around £40 million of public investment, including the transformation of College Green.

He added that crime in Croydon fell 4.1% over the past year, despite public perception. Over the last three years, knife crime, robbery, burglary and antisocial behaviour fell by an average of 24%. Mayor Perry attributed this to increased enforcement, mobile CCTV, park guard patrols, and a trial of tagging for repeat shoplifting offenders, alongside continued work with the police.

Attendees then heard from URW, which is currently redeveloping Croydon’s North End. Its investment in the town centre signals to other investors and businesses that Croydon is active in its growth and regeneration story.

Adam Smith, URW,D irector, said: “I’m very invested in Croydon personally. I’ve been working on this particular project since I joined three years ago, about the same time that URW bought out the Hammerson share of the joint venture, and I am proud to have been involved in Croydon about 10 years ago with Ruskin Square as well.

“So, I really believe in Croydon; it’s an amazing place. And sometimes I think we understate its relevance and importance in the UK. It is not just a top opportunity area in South London. It is one of London’s best opportunity sites. If you regard it as a city, it’s just behind Edinburgh and Bristol in terms of its size, with a population of around 400,000 people… So it really is a significant position, and that’s why URW believes in it and is moving forward with what we’re doing.”

Adam shared the following:

• North End sees around 20 million visits a year, making it the 14th busiest high street in the country.
• Croydon town centre is denser than Birmingham and Leeds, and second only to Manchester.
• The plan is to retrofit and improve retail space across the Whitgift Centre, Centrale and the wider high street, right-sizing the amount of retail to match demand.
• Croydon Council is investing £10 million in North End on repaving, new lighting and new CCTV.
• The reduction in retail space creates capacity for other uses on the Whitgift site, including a significant residential component, expected to be several thousand homes, subject to site allocation in the emerging local plan.
• The scheme is approaching design freeze, to be followed by an environmental impact assessment and an outline planning application, targeted for as early as February.
• Investment in the high street and Centrale during the transition period is intended to keep Croydon thriving while the Whitgift site is under construction.
• The project, branded the Croydon Project, is positioned as a mixed-use development, not a
• Westfield-branded shopping centre, and is being developed in partnership with organisations including the Brit School, Legacy Youth Zone and local colleges.
• Multiple rounds of public consultation have taken place, with further sessions planned on sustainability, run with a Next Gen Panel of 16- to 25-year-olds in partnership with engineering firm Arup.
• A separate study is underway on town centre safety, with a specific focus on violence against women, girls and non-binary people, to inform the design of both URW’s and the Council’s public realm work.
• URW is providing £25,000 to Croydon Voluntary Action for local projects, alongside an ongoing funding and volunteering relationship with Legacy Youth Zone.
• URW tracks apprenticeships and workforce recruitment on site, including local security and retail training, cited as contributing to local recruitment for national brands at Allders Parade.

Originally established in 2010 by White Label Creative alongside a group of leading developers and Croydon Council, Develop Croydon was created as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) to provide a collective voice for the borough’s development community. Over the past 16 years, it has grown into a partnership of developers, businesses, landowners, education providers and public sector organisations, championing regeneration and investment across Croydon.

During that time, the organisation has helped showcase more than £1.2 billion of inward investment, supported the delivery of around 18,000 new homes, and promoted a borough with an economy now worth £11.7 billion.

As Croydon enters its next phase of growth, the refreshed identity reflects both Develop Croydon’s and the local authority’s growing ambition to be recognised as one of the UK’s most significant economic opportunities.