Westminster

Property Week reports that the Westminster Property Association and Westminster City Council have launched London’s first Sustainable City Charter. The charter provides a framework for decarbonising the built environment. It covers 11,000 listed buildings and is part of Westminster’s drive to be a zero-carbon city by 2040. The charter focuses on operational rather than embodied carbon and is not intended to inform planning policy in the City of Westminster. The charter calls on businesses of all sizes to reduce emissions through measures around energy, waste, transport, procurement and sustainable fit-out and refurbishment, and promotes knowledge-sharing and transparency. Business groups including New West End Company and London Heritage Quarter have endorsed it.

Property Week reports that Landsec has pre-let 19,500 sq ft of workspace at its office-led West End scheme Lucent to investment banking and advisory firm Centerview Partners. Located directly behind London’s Piccadilly Lights, the scheme is due to complete in summer 2023, from when Centerview will occupy the sixth floor of the building.

The Evening Standard reports that US candy shops on Oxford Street ‘drop by third’ after raids and legal action. Westminster Council has accused some of the businesses of fleecing the taxpayer with £8m of tax evasion and of “lowering the tone” of the capital’s most famous shopping street. Three sweet shops have been wound up for non-payment of rates in recent weeks, officials said, while two companies have coughed up £250,000 in business rates arrears to avoid court action.

Estate Gazette reports that plans for the Portman Estate’s major new office scheme on Edgware Road, W2 have been given the go-ahead. Westminster City Council approved the land swap earlier this week. The estate, which owns 110 acres in central London, will redevelop Garfield House at 86-110 Edgware Road and Bernard House at 163-169 George Street as a single seven-storey building.

The City

Property Week reports that British Land has secured its first letting at City of London scheme Norton Folgate to international law firm Reed Smith. The law firm has signed up to 126,800 sq ft at Blossom Yard & Studios, more than one-third of the space, a year ahead of completion. Located next to Spitalfields, Norton Folgate is a 340,000 sq ft mixed use scheme made up of eight buildings and will include a mix of shops, bars and restaurants alongside offices.

Property Week reports that Helical and Ashby Capital have completed their first letting at The JJ Mack Building in the City of London. The 37,880 sq ft office letting across the sixth and seventh floors at 33 Charterhouse Street was agreed with Partners Group, a global private markets firm, for its new London office. The JJ Mack Building was completed on the 30^th September and comprises 200,450 sq ft of offices with 5,511 sq ft of ground-floor retail.

Estate Gazette reports that Stanhope and Schroders Capital have submitted plans for their 1.1m sq ft office scheme at 55 Bishopsgate, EC2. Subject to planning, the £600m office-led scheme will offer around 785,700 sq ft of offices in two buildings of 63 and 22 storeys. Some 48,400 sq ft of flexible amenities are proposed on the lower levels, along with 22,600 sq ft of public realm, including a free triple-height green public space at the top of the main building.

Camden

Property Week reports that the London BioScience Innovation Centre (LBIC) is set to become the first occupier at King’s Cross’s Tribeca development. LBIC has signed a 25-year-lease for a 37,127 sq ft innovation centre at The Apex, one of five mixed-use buildings within the Tribeca development in King’s Cross. The scheme is being developed by Reef Group and Blackrock Alternatives, through its real estate business. Founded in 2000, LBIC is wholly owned by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), which is top of the QS World University Subject Rankings 2022 in veterinary science.

Islington

Estate Gazette reports that Snapchat is taking more space in its new London HQ at HB Reavis’ Bloom Clerkenwell, EC1. The social media company is close to agreeing a deal for the 12,073 sq ft top floor at £100 per sq ft – between £10 and £15 more than the rents for lower floors. The expansion will increase the company’s space from 114,924 sq ft to around 126,000 sq ft of offices spanning six floors and 14,719 sq ft of terraces across three floors.

Estate Gazette reports that private markets investment manager Partners Group has inked a deal for a new London head office at Helical and Ashby Caoital’s JJ Mack Building, EC1. The Switzerland-based firm will take 38,000 sq ft across the sixth and seventh floors at 33 Charterhouse Street. The JJ Mack building was completed on the 30^th of September and comprises 200,450 sq ft of offices with 5,500 sq ft of ground floor retail.

Tower Hamlets

Property Week reports that Kadans Science Partner and Canary Wharf Group (CWG) are converting 38,000 sq ft of workspace at its 20 Water Street site into flexible, fully serviced wet-labs as part of a new Canary Wharf life sciences cluster. The partnership will develop a new life science innovation centre at the site, set to open in April 2023, which will offer labs ranging from 200 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft on top of additional office and breakout space. Kadans and CWG recently announced a joint venture to establish a life sciences cluster at Canary Wharf.

Estate Gazette reports that build-to-rent operator Native Residential has been appointed by British Land on the second phase of Aldgate Place, E1. The 136,000 sq ft residential led, mixed-use scheme, adjacent to Aldgate East Tube station, will comprise 159 BTR homes, 19,000 sq ft of offices, 8,000 sq ft of retail and an upgrade to the public realm.

Southwark

Southwark News reports that Southwark Council and the Liberal Democrats have clashed after local Lib Dem leader Victor Chamberlain claimed Labour’s affordable housing commitments were “hot air”. Cllr Chamberlain made the comment after the publication of a report by the London Assembly which presents a mixed picture of Southwark’s house-building projects. On the one hand, the report found that Southwark had begun building 2,090 affordable homes in 2021 – the most of any London borough. But other parts made less happy reading. One statistic showed Southwark had completed just 144 affordable homes in the last year.

Lambeth

London News Online reported that Lambeth residents fear 600 people could be housed in small new development. They have criticised proposals to cram 24 floors of flats on a tiny piece of land at the end of their street. Developer London Realty wants to build hundreds of apartments on the former Lambeth College site in Cornell Square, Vauxhall. But residents say the planned building is too tall, contains too many flats and will be cut off from the rest of the community by a huge fence. A total of 262 apartments could be built on the 0.2 hectare plot, a resident consultations website made by developers said. Residents claim if the building goes ahead it will be one of the most crowded developments in London – with a density of 1,300 dwellings per hectare – eight times higher than the average for a new build in the capital.

Kensington and Chelsea

Business Traveller reports that London’s Kensington High Street is set to welcome a new five-star boutique hotel, following the granting of planning permission to extend an existing building close to the Design Museum. Hospitality firm JMK Group has leased 229 Kensington High Street, which currently houses the 36-room Seraphine Kensington Olympia, as well as a ground floor coffee shop. Architecture and design firm Studio Moren (formerly Dexter Moren Associates) will oversee the refurbishment and expansion of the property, with a rooftop extension adding a further 30 rooms, and the ground floor being used as a café, delicatessen and hotel lobby.

General

Property Week reports that Sadiq Khan called an emergency summit urging the government to freeze rent rates, as it was revealed four out of ten Londoners fear they will struggle to pay rent. The mayor convened the emergency summit, which took place on 14 November, after research from the Greater London Authority (GLA)  and YouGov found over 40% of Londoners would struggle to pay their rent within six months. The research also found that an estimated 500,000 private renters in London were facing possible eviction from their properties. In an interview with Good Morning Britain, the mayor said: “There are 2.6 million Londoners who rent from private landlords. “What this research that we’ve published today shows, is four out of ten [Londoners] are really worried over the next six months they’ll be unable to pay their rents, which could mean them becoming homeless.” In an interview with the BBC, the mayor claimed the decision was not an attack on private landlords. He said: “Over three decades, we’ve not built enough homes – that’s why I go on about council housing and building affordable homes, because we need to make sure that the supply meets the demand.”