City of London Corporation lays out five-year plan to reinvent Square Mile

The City of London Corporation has laid out plans to increase tenancy in the City by 5% within the next five years. It is also aiming for a fifth of the City’s office tenants to be new businesses to the area by 2025 as it looks to help the district recover from the impact of Covid-19 and maintain its position as a world-leading business hub. To achieve these ambitious targets, the corporation said in the report London Recharged, which has been produced in partnership with Oliver Wyman and Arup, that it wanted to transform the City’s office stock to create hives of affordable workspaces that are hyper-flexible to attract SMEs and artists to the area. The corporation also said it would explore repurposing under-developed land to create incubators similar to Brooklyn Navy Yards in New York, as well as transforming empty retail spaces into affordable start-up hubs and make daily life in the City healthier. The corporation is also targeting a 20% reduction in operation energy requirements from its commercial properties, with all new planning approvals to potentially have an “embodied carbon emissions measurement and delivery commitment”. The corporation is also expecting to promote all-electric buildings and Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin opportunities on a City-wide scale to occupiers. In addition, the corporation is to look at how its current planning policy can be made “more flexible to capitalise on emerging trends and considerations to meet the needs of Londoners, for example by providing more affordable housing”. To send feedback, e-mail louise.dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette Picture © Karol Kozlowski/imageBROKER/Shutterstock