Last week we held a meeting of our members, open to other local people, to share our almost-final plans to build new affordable homes at The Lawns, SE19.
The Chair of our board, Chris Axon, took everyone through the presentation we will be showing Croydon Council’s planners soon. He covered:
- How we have considered all the constraints on the site – physical, from planning policy, and feedback from local people living nearby after a few different forms of engagement with them early in the project
- Our extensive community engagement, and the role of our Resident Design Group in shaping the architect’s designs, making affordability and environmental sustainability their #1 and #2 priorities
- The likely affordability model – due to the high cost of the awkward site, we aim to sell the homes for approximately 70% of their full market value, and we will hold that discount of 30% for future buyers so they are always cheaper for local people (though this all depends on how inflation goes, it has already clobbered our project)
You can watch his presentation and look at the designs in this video:
After his presentation we took some questions, including from local councillors.
At the end of the meeting our members voted to re-elect four members of the Board. This is part of what makes us different from other developers – we are not-for-profit, owned by local people, and lead by local people.
We hope these homes will benefit local people for years to come.
For now we have more work to do ahead of submitting a full planning application in the late spring/early summer. We hope local people will add supportive comments. If approved, we hope to be on site starting construction sometime next year.
You can own a slice of our land, and get involved in our story, by joining Crystal Palace CLT for £1 (plus a 23p processing charge).