In the hot seat: Roisha Hughes has taken over the daunting job of steering the 400-year-old John Whitgift Foundation into the 21st Century. Photo: Lee Townsend/InsideCroydon
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
The Whitgift Foundation is in talks with the Mayor of London and central government for another multi-million-pound bail-out for Croydon, this one likely to centre around building around 3,000 homes in the town centre.
That’s according to an interview given by Roisha Hughes, the new chief executive at the John Whitgift Foundation, which is among Croydon’s biggest employers and is the borough’s largest landowner.
Among the properties they owned is the Whitgift Centre, once a source of pride and much business for Croydon, but now a largely deserted and neglected space.
Kicking the buckets: the Whitgift Centre has been on its last legs as a shopping centre for almost two decades now
It was the Whitgift Foundation that in 2012 signed up with Aussie shopping mall developers Westfield for a scheme, first valued at £1billion, later rising to £1.4billion, which was supposed to replace the ageing Whitgift Centre and spruce up Centrale and revive the fortunes of Croydon town centre.
Nearly 14 years later, and the scheme remains stalled, hit by global financial shocks (ring any bells?), the continued decline of retailing, and covid. And Croydon town centre is in a shabby old state.
In the meantime, Westfield has been taken over by Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco, and Hughes has taken over from the men in City suits who have, for more than 400 years, overseen the management of the endowments left by Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite Archbishop, John Whitgift, for the benefit of the people of Croydon.
And in her first interview since taking on the job as Foundation CEO last November, Hughes tells Inside Croydon that the scheme – due for its third planning application later this year – is now to be a Public-Private Partnership.
Meetings have already taken place over the future of Croydon town centre with agencies including Homes England, London Partners (the Mayor of London’s development arm), the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Transport for London, including key figures such as Sir Howard Dawber, London’s deputy mayor for business and growth, and Tom Copley, another deputy mayor, for housing.
Outline plans that have been made public so far suggest a phased redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre, involving around 3,000 flats and much-reduced retail, hospitality and entertainment provision, in a project which could yet be at least 15 years before completion.
“It’s a high priority,” Hughes says in the interview for the Under The Flyover podcast.
“As a resident, I absolutely get why people are frustrated. And it’s taken a long time…
“URW have absolutely got the resources to deliver a much-needed redevelopment in the town centre… It’s going to be a Public-Private sector partnership that gets this off the ground.”
And according to one Katharine Street source today, “The council and Mayor of London have had to be bystanders in all this so far – it has been a private project, it has been Westfield’s project. If there’s public investment in the scheme now, then the council and City Hall ought to have much more say in what is developed, and over the pace of the development.”
It is impossible to understate the importance of the job that Roisha Hughes was handed last November.
Final term: Old Palace girls’ school will close, finally, after the summer term, a victim of falling rolls and the Whitgift Foundation’s declining incomes
In many respects, Hughes has more influence and power over the future of Croydon than any here-today-gone-tomorrow politician.
In overall charge of the running of a registered charity which has more than £120million of funds invested and which owns properties worth £200million, the Foundation also has in its care hundreds of people in its care homes and thousands of pupils at its three (soon to be two) fee-paying schools, plus nearly 800 employees.
Westfield, the Whitgift Centre and the future of Croydon town centre was right at the top of the agenda when Hughes sat down for an Under The Flyover podcast interview with Inside Croydon this week.
In a wide-ranging interview, Hughes is asked about…
- The Whitgift Foundation’s 2023 decision to close Old Palace girls’ school (“I can still feel it. There’s still a lot of anger. And sadness”)
- Working for Boris Johnson for eight years (apparently, he was a good boss)
- How VAT will affect the Foundation’s schools’ fees (“The market of families who can afford private education will shrink”)
- Donald Trump’s impact on stock market investments for charities such as the Whitgift Foundation (“We do pay attention to this…”, but, “we’re not panicking”)
- And what the future holds for Croydon town centre and Westfield’s £1.4billion regeneration project
Listen in, and then please sign-up to support the valuable and news-breaking journalism provided every day by Inside Croydon.
Read more: Perry’s council endorses scheme for 3,000 flats in town centre
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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