Croydon council has reaffirmed its commitment to the construction of a new supermall in the borough.

New regeneration ideas will be put forward should plans for the new Westfield shopping centre fall through, a council spokesman added.

Work to demolish the Whitgift Centre is expected kick off in August next year to make way for Westfield.

All being well it is set to be completed in 2023, ten years after it was first given the go ahead.

The initial master plan for the £1.4 billion supermall was approved by Croydon Council back in 2013.

In January Sadiq Khan gave the plans his stamp of approval and at the end of May it was announced that John Lewis will be the centres key store.

Now the Croydon Limited Partnership (CLP), in charge of delivering the development, is now going through the compulsory purchase order (CPO) process.

This means the remaining land around the site needed for the development is will be bought up. The council gave the green light for the CPO powers in June.

A spokesman for Croydon Council said the borough is committed to working with the CLP even if the Westfield development did not go ahead.

He said: “We are continuing to work with our partners CLP to facilitate the redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre.

“It is anticipated CPO notices will be served imminently, which will allow the completion of the land assembly to enable construction to commence.

“The council is committed to working with CLP, in the event the redevelopment does not go ahead, the council will continue to work with CLP and key stakeholders to bring forward proposals to facilitate the regeneration of the town centre.”

But CLP is still confident the shopping centre will open in 2023 with a representative saying settlements have now been reached with landowners and occupiers affected by the redevelopment.

It has already been agreed that some shops will move from the Whitgift Centre to Centrale.

Once all the remaining land is bought the company will be talking to more retailers to come on board.

The CLP spokesman added: “The delivery of the new retail centre in Croydon coincides with the council’s series of major projects that will enable Croydon’s growth zone to deliver the £5.25 billion regeneration programme.”

As well as 173,684sqm of retail and leisure space the plans for Westfield include more than 3,000sqm of office space and 3,140 parking spaces.

The development is also set to include up to 967 new homes in a build to rent scheme.

Of these 60 per cent are set to be at 80 per cent of market rent while the other 40 per cent would be prices at ‘London living rent’.