Overview of borough

Resident population: 341,800

Working age population: 218,600

Key town centres: Croydon, Purley, Thornton Heath, Coulsdon, and Norbury.

The Chinese community is spread across different parts of London, as a consequence of a large and growing professional middle class many Chinese moved from Chinatown to areas such as Croydon and Colindale, resulting in bespoke services such as the Wing Yip business centre on Purley Way, Croydon.

Skills & Labour Force

Qualifications:
33.7% of the workforce is educated to degree level (NVQ4+) compared with London at 38.6%

International Schools

Chinese (Cantonese dialect) Saturday School
at Trinity Boys’ High School for students aged 5 – 16 years. Contact: Mrs. Jane Tang, Mobile: 07710 794212

Japanese Saturday school
is run at Croydon High School for students aged 6-15, contact number: +44 (0) 20 8993 7145

Colleges / Universities

Coulsdon College
Web: www.coulsdon.ac.uk

Croydon College
Web: www.croydon.ac.uk

John Ruskin College
Web: www.johnruskin.ac.uk

The BRIT school
Web: www.brit.croydon.sch.uk/

Business Base

There are 180,700 economically active people in the borough.

There are 9,435 VAT registered businesses based in Croydon, with both new start-up enterprises and established businesses thriving.

Croydon has a large number of multinational companies in the business service and engineering sectors, which are attracted by the large amount of office space available, approx. 8.5 million sq ft, as well the excellent transport links. The wholesale & retail sector also dominates the business base. Other niche sectors include energy – SNC Lavalin; ICT – BT and Inquiry Management Systems; and aerospace & defence – Sigma Aerospace and Centronic.

Companies include: Amec, TPS Consult, Stonewest, HBOS, AIG, Liverpool Victoria, BT, Direct Line, Home Office, IPC Country and Leisure Media, Jane’s Information Group, Mondial, Mott McDonald, Nestle, SNC Lavalin and Pegasus Solutions (Utell).

Model based unemployment rate: 7.1% (Apr 2008-Mar 2009).

Transport

London Victoria and London Bridge stations can be reached within 15 minutes by train.

Gatwick International Airport is just 15 minutes by train from central Croydon and London Heathrow is within an hour by road or rail.

Tramlink connecting Croydon with Beckenham, and Wimbledon.
The A23 London to Brighton road links Croydon directly to the M23 and M25. The A232 provides east-west links with Kingston, Sutton and Bromley.

East London Line: Extensions to the line are planned in two phases. Phase 1 will involve extending the East London line to Dalston Junction, Crystal Palace and West Croydon by summer 2010.

Quality of life

Top 5 attractions:

Croydon Clocktower: Live performance space showing dance, music and theatre, plus the Museum of Croydon.

Fairfield Halls - entertainment venue for South London with plans to make it a vibrant arts venue for the 21st century.

Addington Palace: former summer home to Archbishops of Canterbury.

Croydon Skyline: unique public lighting programme involving 20 buildings in the town centre between dusk and midnight

Shopping: One of the biggest retail centres in the South East including the Whitgift Centre, Centrale, Wing Yip Centre and the Purley Way.

Business Support

Croydon Chamber of Commerce
Lansdowne Building
2 Lansdowne Road
Croydon
Surrey
CR9 2ER
Tel: 020 8263 2345
Fax: 020 8263 2352

Croydon Council
Taberner House, Park Lane, Croydon CR9 3JS
020 8686 4433
www.croydon.gov.uk
Croydon Economic Development Company (CEDC)
Telephone: 020 8686 2233
Email: info@croydonedc.co.uk