City of London shake-up seen as ‘turning point’ for Square Mile

Plans to turn empty offices into homes, attract more tenants from creative industries and organise “all-night cultural celebrations” have been hailed as a turning point for the City of London as it looks to recover from the pandemic. The City of London Corporation said this week that the Square Mile “must evolve in order to provide an ecosystem that remains attractive to workers, visitors, learners and residents”, as it announced sweeping proposals designed to modernise the financial district. Those include a target to create 1,500 new homes by 2030, partly by turning office buildings abandoned during the pandemic into housing. According to EG, City planners have approved just 91 new homes across 16 developments since 2018, while more than 2m sq ft of office space has been waved through already this year. The Corporation also said it will look at bringing in more tenants from the creative industries on low-cost, long-term leases in otherwise empty blocks, as well as trying to attract more “high-potential tech-led businesses”, which have historically favoured other areas of London. Seven-day-a-week destination Stuart Baillie, Knight Frank’s head of planning, told EG that the new strategy marked a “turning point” for the Corporation. “The policies are definitely moving towards making the City more of a seven-day-a-week destination,” he said. “Whether that is boosting housing supply or bringing in different types of tenants, the strategy marks a shift in priorities.” Bradley Baker, director at developer Co-Re, added: “Having an increased residential element within the City should be seen as an attraction to its overall offer and should facilitate the area’s retail, food and beverage provision, helping to add to the City’s vibrancy.” The change of tack comes as part of the authority’s broader plan to revive the Square Mile, which has been hit especially hard since the outbreak of Covid-19, when its half a million daily commuters were forced to work from home. The Corporation is plotting a swathe of public realm, retail and leisure-focused improvements, such as banning traffic at the weekends during the summer, improving cycling provisions and even organising all-night “cultural celebrations”. Although the area is known as home to large financial services companies, 99% of the 24,000 businesses that called it home before the pandemic were small or medium-sized. Authorities have realised that “their financial future very much depends on bringing people back into the City,” said CBRE senior planning director Will Lingard. “That is not just with retail, but with the cultural offer too,” Lingard added. “They recognise the threat if they do not have the right conditions, and the public realm is going to become fundamentally important to that.” Other elements of the strategy include encouraging landlords to offer more flexible office space suited to hybrid working; a trial of e-scooters; and the launch of a shared 5G mobile phone network across the district by the end of next year. Evolution imperative City of London Corporation policy chair Catherine McGuinness said: “We have been listening to businesses of all sizes in the City to understand how the pandemic has affected their ways of working and their needs going forward. “Firms have told us that they remain committed to retaining a central London hub but how they operate will inevitably change to reflect post-pandemic trends, such as hybrid and flexible working. “The Square Mile must evolve… This will involve encouraging growth, fostering talent from all backgrounds, providing a vibrant leisure offer and offering outstanding environments.” Gerald Ronson, owner of the SalesForce tower in the City, said: “It is a progressive idea and one I fully support – obviously everything is in the detail of the execution.” The strategy update comes after the Corporation announced a swathe of personnel changes to its executive team, designed to “deliver transformational change” for the area. That included promoting City Corp veteran Caroline Al-Beyerty to chief financial officer and hiring former GLA planning head Juliemma McLoughlin as executive director for the environment. It also handed its interim planning and development director Gwyn Richards the permanent role. To send feedback, e-mail alex.daniel@egi.co.uk or tweet @alexmdaniel or @estatesgazette\ Photo: Pixabay