Plans for Westfield and Hammerson's £1bn shopping centre in Croydon town centre have been expanded to hundreds of new homes, a new Marks and Spencer store and an IMAX cinema.

The revised proposals include up to 1,000 homes, as well as an extra floor and a new car park on Wellesley Road to take traffic away from Poplar Walk.

The two retail giants, working together as the Croydon Partnership, will look at increasing the number of homes it will build beyond the 400 to 600 units previously agreed. 

The development, at the site of the Whitgift Centre and surrounding land, will include 1.5m square feet of retail and leisure floor space and create 5,000 new jobs.

The plans had orignally included a refurbished Marks and Spencer department store, but instead now feature a purpose-built flagship shop at a new location.

Documents submitted to Croydon Council's planning committee meeting next week propose "provision of a cinema with an IMAX screen or similar offer, adding: "This requires additional height to the proposed cinema box beyond the approved scheme."

John Burton, Westfield's head of development, said: "We have continued to evolve our plans and designs alongside positive discussions with retailers and the progression of the land assembly process. 

“These exciting new elements are the culmination of that work and allow us to provide an upgraded scheme that is in line with our ambition for Croydon to become a state of the art retail and leisure destination.”

Robin Dobson, Hammerson’s director of retail development, said: “We believe the enhanced scheme will be a major draw attracting more visitors, residents and wider investment and employment into the town.”

The revised plans will be presented to the council’s planning committee on April 28 ahead of a public consultation in the Whitgift Centre next month and submission of a revised outline planning application later this summer. 

In February the retail giants pushed back the start of work, which was expected to begin this year, to 2017.

When the redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre was first announced, it was hoped the project would be completed by winter 2017.

At the time a spokesman for Hammerson said: "Works are now expected to start in 2017 with potential completion in 2020/21.”

The Croydon Partnership has also launched a new website, thecroydonpartnership.com.