IS THE UK REALLY OPEN FOR BUSINESS, MR CAMERON? IF SO… DON’T LIST BROADGATE
CITY A.M. today launches a campaign against proposals to give listed building status to the Square Mile’s Broadgate estate, and calls on the government to prove the UK is open for business by rejecting the plans.
If the government decides to list the 1980s site then plans to redevelop it into a new headquarters for investment bank UBS will have to be torn up. This would send a message that London is no longer a serious destination for global firms
On Friday, English Heritage recommended that the Peter Foggo-designed Broadgate estate should be protected by listed status.
The label is normally used to preserve historic and architectural treasures. It is only ever given to buildings less than 30 years old if they are of “outstanding quality”.
Current tenant UBS hopes to move into a purpose-built European headquarters on the site of two of the estate’s buildings, first opened in 1985, with the developers aiming to spend £340m on the project.
Despite winning planning permission in April, the site’s development has now been jeopardised after English Heritage recommended giving all 13 buildings on the estate Grade II listed status. The architectural watchdog claims that the properties “are exemplars of their time and place”.
City A.M. is campaigning for the new development to go ahead, allowing a global bank to remain in the Square Mile and sending a signal to financial firms around the world that the City welcomes fresh development.
The final decision rests with culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, and this newspaper urges the minister to give priority to the wishes of the site’s owners, as well as the needs of the City as a financial hub.
In his Budget in March, chancellor George Osborne said the current planning system has “held back investment and created distortions in the way that businesses compete, deterring development and growth”.
For the government to overhaul planning laws in favour of development while allowing a £340m project to stall would be hypocritical.
Hunt is expected to announce a final decision by the end of July.
Writing in City A.M. today, the City of London’s top executive warns that existing planning laws could prevent London from attracting the world’s top companies.
Stuart Fraser (pictured) argues that imposing the same planning and preservation laws on the country’s financial centre as the rest of the country does “not take account of the City’s unique primary purpose as a business district”, and that the bureaucratic tangle could push firms away from London.
“If we truly want to support economic growth the government must not hinder the City’s ability to provide suitable office space for the world’s leading firms and any future legislative proposals must reflect this,” he warns.