London Tramlink extension: Sutton will be in the spotlight for homebuyers if tram route extends to Morden by 2025

A £425 million London Tramlink extension that will offer commuters in a swathe of south-west London a greener, more pleasant way to get to work, is being considered by Transport for London.

A “referendum” on the plan found more than eight in 10 people were keen to see the tram network enlarged and the most popular route option was between Wimbledon and Sutton, via Morden.

A decision on whether to go ahead with the five-mile extension will be made by transport chiefs later this year. Work would start in 2022 and services could be running by 2025.

The green light for the project would shine a spotlight on Sutton, currently one of the most affordable parts of London.

According to Rightmove, homes in the SM1 postcode cost an average of £417,000, up almost £50,000 in the past two years as buyers are pushed out to the borders of Surrey in search of better value.

It’s an impressive price performance against a wider backdrop of falls. A typical flat in Sutton costs £265,000, while a detached house costs an average £649,000.

At present Sutton’s stock of Victorian and Thirties family homes and an increasing number of new flats is rather let down by its gloomy town centre.

But Sutton council is working on proposals to revamp the area and regenerate a number of its council estates. Some 5,000 new homes are to be built in Sutton by 2031.

“We need new and modern means of transport to persuade people to travel into and around our borough in a sustainable way,” said Jayne McCoy, deputy leader of Sutton council.

Trams made a return to London in 2000 after an absence of almost 50 years. A 17-mile track now operates across south and south-west London, an area with fewer Tube stations than the rest of the capital.

The trams run from Croydon towards Beckenham Junction, Wimbledon and Addington.

Trains from Sutton already run to the City and Victoria station but trams would give local residents more fast links to Morden, to pick up the Northern line, and Wimbledon, for fast services to Waterloo.