New council homes: the 73 flats bought by Croydon Council in Zodiac House in Broad Green – shown here in an architects’ CGI – cost around £274,000 each
Tory Mayor Jason Perry’s cash-strapped council is attempting to deal with the housing crisis by spending £20million to buy an office-to-resi development in Broad Green.
Zodiac Court is notorious as the fictionalised setting of “Apollo House”, the block including a flat shared by characters Mark and Jez in Channel 4 comedy Peep Show. Now, 73 other households will call the building home, as Croydon Council seeks to reduce the steeply rising costs of providing temporary accommodation.
The purchase price, which Mayor Perry has kept a strictly guarded secret, makes the average cost of each flat almost £274,000.
The refurbishment work to the site, which was nominated for architecture awards, was done by developers Common Projects, who just two years ago were saying that they were creating “apartments for local first-time buyers”.
Perry’s council must have made them a better offer.
The buildings at Zodiac Court on London Road were split in two: the first four floors were offices, which had stood empty for almost 40 years, with the residential tower, Zodiac House (the block featured in the TV comedy), rising above it.
Peep show: the brutalist architecture of Zodiac Court is recognised around the world after featuring on the Channel 4 TV comedy
The developers had also been liaising with community groups. They promised to turn the inhospitable, windswept concrete forecourt area between Zodiac Court and the busy London Road into a public space, which was to be called “Broad Green Common”. Which would have been nice.
Buying office blocks and turning them into temporary accommodation flats is nothing new: 10 years ago, the then Labour-run council bought 1960s office block Windsor House in Norbury and two other unwanted buildings, Concord House and Sycamore House in Thornton Heath, to use instead of placing families in costly and controversial B&Bs.
All three buildings remain in council use today, and all three have had repeated issues with fires, broken down equipment, over-crowding and insanitary conditions. It was a Croydon Labour councillor who had described office-to-resi conversion homes as “the slums of the future”.
In a statement issued from the council’s propaganda bunker, they said that the latest acquisition, approved at last week’s council cabinet meeting, would “help support residents facing homelessness and address the growing national demand for temporary accommodation”.
The council said: “The purchase of Zodiac House is part of the council’s proactive approach to tackling homelessness by providing safe temporary homes to local families and individuals, whilst they look for long-term housing.
“It also helps the council to meet its Homelessness Duty under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and reduce costs to the council with less use of other more expensive temporary housing options.”
The council blames the pressures on its housing service on the lack of enough affordable homes and “high rents in the private sector”.
High rise: Zodiac House (the tower block) and Zodiac Court (the disused offices), as they looked 10 years ago
Zodiac, which provides one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, will be managed by the council, “making sure that everything is well-maintained”, the council said.
“Each flat will be furnished with essential items like white goods, basic furniture, and wardrobe spaces. There will be a 24-hour concierge service to support tenants.”
The council says that it is funding the purchase with money from the Right to Buy scheme – that is, receipts from the heavily discounted sale of council homes – as well as Local Authority Housing Grant and borrowing.
“It is expected to reduce costs by £987,000 per annum,” the council said. So at that rate, without allowing for any interest payments, Croydon should be quids in on its Zodiac purchase by the year 2045…
“This approach aligns with the Executive Mayor Perry’s Business Plan for Croydon, which focuses on delivering more affordable homes, improving housing quality and ensuring homes are safer and better designed for residents.”
Inside Croydon has asked Croydon Council to provide figures for the number of council homes built in the borough over the past five years. Croydon Council refused to provide those figures.
While he was keeping schtum about the real cost of buying the Zodiac development, Mayor Perry did try to take credit for doing what the council is legally obliged to do: “The increased demand for services and shortage of accommodation means we have to look at doing things differently, and the purchase of Zodiac House is a good example of this.
“The scheme will give us 73 residential units to support residents facing homelessness. This will improve the council’s supply of accommodation and reduce spending on expensive temporary arrangements, as well as providing safe and secure homes for our residents.”
Read more: Take a Peep at this: public garden planned for Zodiac Court
Read more: 70 families evacuated after serious fire in Thornton Heath block
Read more: Residents living in fear of fire in council-run housing blocks
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Croydon Council are such a byword for incompetence, have they paid over the odds for the Zodiac development, like they infamously did for the Croydon Park Hotel ?
I guess some of the providers of (expensive) temporary accommodation in B&Bs will be opposed to this plan because they will lose their (lucrative) long-term contracts for providing accommodation, and will have to make more effort to maintain occupancy of their establishments?
Congratulations to the council for doing this. Hope it is not the last. There is a desperate need for more housing and reducing the reliance on third party landlords can only be welcomed.
If “Broad Green Common” ends up looking like the CGI picture, I will be very pleased. It’s only a couple of hundred metres from where I live.
The green common will be impossible to maintain. Look at the Queen”s Garden right now.
Filling Zodiac Court full of alcoholics and drug dealers is one of Mayor Perry’s great plans? The neighbouring building Vistek House has also gone that way unfortunately. Is the Mayor out of his mind?
Perry on parade again, he has to go!
The area is ridden with drug dealers and antisocial behaviour and does not need more ! The garden at the front also is going to be a dumping ground for fly tippers. That aside, I thought Croydon Council had no money?
They have overpaid again.
History repeats itself.