Westfield, part of the multi-national Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield property group which is worth many billions, last month announced an “important strand of our community strategy”: doling out some modest grants to community groups and charities in the borough.
Still waiting: it could be 2026 before Westfield submit a planning application for Croydon
It is more than 12 years since Westfield arrived in Croydon, promising to transform the town centre.
Now they are providing a grand total of £15,000.
To 15 different causes.
Yes… that’s a relatively meagre £1,000 a time.
This faux generosity is the latest part of Westfield’s PR drive that includes artwashing North End with colourful murals on the hoardings that cover-up the vacant and neglected buildings that they have failed to develop.
Then there was the lip-service consultation over town planning, using old breakfast cereal boxes, washing up bottles and sticky back plastic in the “Urban Room”, a couple of disused retail units in the increasingly run-down Whitgift Centre.
Much, if not all, of this is being paid for out of £6million-worth of fines imposed by Croydon Council for Westfield’s failure to deliver their development on time.
Coming soon, or so we are led to believe, is a cluster of “kiosks”, including a couple of fast food joints, in the long-vacant Allders building. That will be nice, after the people and businesses of Croydon have been kept waiting for more than a decade for the substantive, £1billion-plus redevelopment of the town centre.
Bigger slice of the cake: Mayor Perry gets paid more in a week than each community group is receiving from URW
And then there’s this charity hand-out.
One grand a time. That’s less than Mayor Jason Perry pockets in council salary in a week.
Part-time Perry, though, was one of the first to issue a grovelling vote of gratitude to URW for their generosity.
“Thank you to Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield for providing these grants, which will reach many people in our community,” Perry snivelled, ever so ‘umble.
Many people? Not enough, though, as Perry strips the council of so many of its services for the vulnerable and poor, reduces Council Tax benefit, closes libraries, and places children’s nurseries under threat, while cosying up to big business.
According to URW, “15 grass roots organisations operating in the London Borough of Croydon, providing services to the local community and earning an annual income of £75,000 or less will receive vital funding amounting to a total of £15,000.” Vital funding.
“The organisations that have been granted funding are aligned with the following objectives: tackling youth disenfranchisement by providing opportunities and activities for young people…”, some of those 7,000 jobs in the Westfield mall promised so long ago might help with that, “supporting people experiencing homelessness, temporary accommodation, as well as refugees and asylum seekers.” Westfield had wanted to build almost 1,000 homes according to their last planning application – though they were not so keen on providing homes at social rent levels.
URW acclaimed its latest outburst of generosity to Croydon by saying, “The organisations that have been successful in receiving grants in 2024 will be invited to apply for additional funding in 2025 of up to £5,000 each to encourage development, growth and support more local residents.” Which is nice.
Steve Phaure, the former Croydon Council staffer who now styles himself “CEO of Croydon Voluntary Action”, another organisation that has had its grants cut by Perry’s council, said, “Small grants can make a big difference… CVA and URW are proud partners in launching this fund – and we invite others to invest with us in keeping Croydon’s community spirit alive.”
The sense of desperation is palpable. According to some of those working in Croydon’s “third sector”, the community spirit is currently on life support, after 15 years of austerity cuts under Tories, LibDems and now Labour.
There was no shortage of takers for the Westfield largesse. While 15 organisations got picked, according to Westfield there were another 48 organisations who applied but didn’t even get one of the modest £1,000 hand-outs.
Among the organisations that received the modest grants were a couple of churches, a basketball club and… a marketing consultancy.
“Collectively with local partners, this initiative is in line with URW’s Better Places strategy and its commitment to thriving communities by implementing social Inclusion initiatives, which have a positive impact on the local community,” said URW, the business that has done more than most to devastate local communities over the past 12 years, by a series of broken promises and a process of studied neglect.
Read more: Waiting for Westfield leaves us Urban Room for improvement
Read more: Westfield wants to build five times as many flats in town centre
Read more: Westfield boss says Croydon scheme could take 15 more years
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It’s been hard times of late for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, whose estimated net income for last year is only around €783 million; no wonder there are so few crumbs of comfort for Croydon community groups.
Things could be worse. Tucked away in URW’s review of the first six months of 2024 are the ominous words “Continuous focus on disposals”. Boasting of dumping €5.3 Bn of unwanted assets since 2021, they said that there were “active discussions on an additional €1.0 Bn of asset disposals”. Might Croydon be for the chop?
Search the company’s website and our blighted town only gets mentioned twice, in old press releases, one from April 2023, the other from 2013. Not exactly a sign of confidence or commitment, particularly for a global company with only three assets in the UK they think worth mentioning: Westfield Stratford City, Westfield London and Coppermaker Square, a just completed residential development in the heart of Stratford
Wait! ‘Not exactly a sign of confidence or commitment’. How could they possibly have any confidence in our benighted borough? I bet they’re wishing they’d never shown any interest in us.
It would make my day if URW disposed of all their assets in Croydon.
It would make URW’s day too but they have nothing to lose by applying to build as many flats as possible, especially with the wind of Labour’s housebuilding drive behind them. They know their name is mud in Croydon but their gallery is the goverment and council. Not sure why Pigeon Perry is fawning, except it’s what he does.
I keep thinking of the empty Allders car park. They would rather leave it an empty void than lower the ticket price or accept less revenue. It’s overpriced tickets have literally leeched all the life out of the south end. And now there is no blood left to suck they have sealed it up….
This, by the company who banned Croydon Male Voice Choir from singing for charity during the Christmas period, as it had done for at least ten years. The choir regularly raised £1000 or more for a range of good causes. So it could have made a £1000 donation and saved the company from having to squeeze it out of its own coffers.