Australian developer Westfield has secured permission to build a £1bn (US$1.8bn, €1.21bn) mega retail and leisure facility in Croydon, London after the firm was granted approval from the local council and Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

The project is being developed by Westfield with UK partner Hammerson, which owns the Brent Cross shopping centre in north London.

To be completed by 2018, the transformation of the Whitgift Centre is thought to have the potential to create 5,000 new jobs and entice 40 million people to visit the area each year.

Plans include the use of 1.5 million sq ft (139,354sq m) of development space, with the new facility also helping to rejuvenate the nearby Centrale shopping centre, which has planning consent for refurbishment.

The project is part of a wider Croydon Partnership programme, which is looking to transform the local area.

Support comes from Johnson as he seeks to help develop the town, which was at the centre of the 2011 London riots, with the new mega-mall potentially spurring the creation of 600 new homes.

The site is also set to feature leisure and office space, in combination with room for leading retailers.

The project was approved by Croydon Council's Strategic Planning Committee, despite pockets of resistance – mostly notably from rival developer and property firm Minerva.

Minerva owns a small lot on the site and made clear that it did not want to sell its land, having made a late objection to the scheme, which claimed that Westfield did not appear to include enough parking to allow for further regeneration schemes in the area. However, the objection was dismissed.

“In terms of scale, what we’re delivering here is in total larger than what we currently have at either Stratford or west London,” said John Burton, Westfield’s director of development.

“The intention is to be a pace setter here and more widely in Europe. This will be the absolute top of the tree.”

The retail centre will be Westfield’s third in London, with other developments also located in Shepherd's Bush and Stratford.

More information on the project, the Croydon Partnership and the area’s development is available here