Camden 

Property Week reports that British Land has submitted a planning application to transform 1970s central London skyscraper Euston Tower into a science and innovation workplace. The part-retrofitting, part-rebuilding project, would create 462,000 sq ft of office space and 215,000 sq ft of flexible office and lab-enabled floorspace. The scheme will also include 28,700 sq ft of accelerator space for start-ups or existing businesses with rapid growth potential. The submitted proposals would strip back the 36-storey Euston Tower to its central core and foundations, with around 31% of the existing structure being retained.

Architects’ Journal reports that the practice, working with delivery architect ECE Westworks, has completed the housing in Camden’s Maitland Park Estate, including 51 council homes. The redevelopment at Maitland Park is Camden’s latest social housing project to complete since it announced the expansion of its housebuilding programme by committing an extra £1.3 billion investment towards building new homes for its residents.

City of London

MyLondon reports that Barbican campaigners are fighting demolition plans to bulldoze Museum of London building. Barbican Quarter Action claims the corporation’s proposals to destroy the former home of the Museum of London and Bastion House and build three office blocks in their place amount to ‘carbon crimes’, and will significantly impact the heritage of the area.

City of Westminster

Property Week reports that Facebook parent company Meta is leaving its London headquarters at One Rathbone Square in a dramatic reduction of its UK office footprint. Meta said it was closing its 228,000 sq ft UK headquarters at German landlord Deka Immobilien’s West End offices. The move comes after Meta spent £149m wriggling out of its lease at British Land’s 310,000 sq ft 1 Triton Square, which it surrendered in September.

Hammersmith & Fulham

Property Week reports that Cinema operator Vue has chosen Westfield London as the location for its new headquarters. The cinema chain, which has more than 90 UK sites and is currently headquartered at Chiswick Park, will take up 14,000 sq ft of office space at One Ariel Way – part of the wider mixed-use White City shopping centre complex – plus a 2,000 sq ft private roof terrace looking over west London.

Islington

Islington Council announced 2024/25 budget proposals and calls for fair funding from Government. The budget prioritises frontline services and aims to deliver a more equal Islington by supporting the council’s missions – building a safe place to call home; creating a greener and healthier Islington; a fairer local economy; creating a child-friendly Islington; and making sure people can access support where and when they need it. Due to Government cuts to council budgets, inflation, soaring costs and high demand for services, the council has had to make further savings of £10.8million to set a balanced 2024/25 budget.

Architects’ Journal reports that Morris+Company’s controversial plans for an office building in Shoreditch have been stalled yet again, after Islington Council deferred its decision on the scheme for a third time. The planning committee voted unanimously to defer its decision and allow the designers to revisit the proposal and address concerns once again over its impact on daylight in surrounding streets. The scheme involves demolishing two office blocks bounded by Clere Street, Paul Street and Epworth Street, replacing them with a taller office building.

Tower Hamlets

Property Week reports that Sainsbury’s has abandoned plans to redevelop a supermarket in Whitechapel, where it also intended to build almost 1,000 homes and a hotel. The proposals, created in partnership with developer Far East Consortium, have been deemed unviable due to economic risks, finance cost and market uncertainty. Plans for the Bath Street Square scheme included 950 homes, with about 200 designated as affordable, a four-star hotel and the redevelopment of the existing Sainsbury’s store on the site

General

Property Week reports that a wave of energy-inefficient office stock is set to hit the London market, with up to 11.9m sq ft of space with an Energy Performance Certificate of ’C’ due to be released by 2027. According to research from CBRE UK, around 15.9m sq ft of central London office space will be released back into the market by the end of 2027, mostly due to large lease expiries. The real estate adviser predicts the cost of upgrading this stock to energy efficient standards could be up to £370m, around 9% of this stock’s total estimated capital value.

Property Week reports that WeWork’s UK arm faces “material uncertainty” after posting a £123m loss and revealing it owes its parent company £731m. The firm did slash its losses by 14% compared with the year prior and boosted its revenue by 165% to £59.4m as it published its accounts for the year ended 31 December 2022, but the directors’ report said the recovery from losses during the Covid-19 pandemic had been “slower than expected”.