Lord Wolfson: don’t protect Broadgate
NEXT chief executive Lord Wolfson has backed City A.M.’s campaign to allow the redevelopment of the Broadgate estate near Liverpool Street, warning that “unthinking bureaucracy is fossilising the economy” by giving the site listed status.
Wolfson, who sits in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer, said English Heritage’s move to recommend the listing of most of the Broadgate site “exemplifies the deeply regressive nature of the listing process”.
“This decision sacrifices new development, the architecture of the future, to preserve the unremarkable architecture of the past. It is but one example of how unthinking bureaucracy is fossilising the UK economy,” he told City A.M.
Lord Wolfson, who was appointed as a working peer last year, has advised the government on economic and taxation policy.
Broadgate owners Blackstone and British Land have already won planning permission from the City of London to demolish part of the estate to make way for a purpose-built HQ for current tenant UBS.
The companies plan to spend £340m on the new build, which they estimate will maintain around 5,000 construction jobs in the City.
The final say on whether to give Broadgate Grade II* listed status rests with culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is expected to announce his decision next month.
English Heritage and conservation group the Twentieth Century Society have asked for the site to be listed, but senior figures at City firms including Morgan Stanley, Merchant Securities and London Bridge Capital have backed the new development.
Broadgate would become only the second post-war commercial City property to be listed if protection is given.