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Landsec’s Red Lion Court redevelopment set for approval

Plans for Landsec’s new £320m office-led development at Red Lion Court, SE1, have been recommended for approval by Southwark Council.

The 11-storey block, which will offer 344,833 sq ft of offices, is set to be granted approval at a meeting of the planning committee tomorrow.

As part of the redevelopment, the existing nine-storey building, which was the former home to Lloyds Banking Group, will be demolished and replaced. In its most recent financial results, the REIT said its proposals have a total development cost of £320m.

Once complete, the site will also provide 3,638 sq ft of restaurant space, 2,465 sq ft of retail and 1,130 sq ft of fitness and wellness offerings.

“Currently [the building] provides very limited contribution to the public amenity, suffering a lack of permeability which funnels people along the Bankside Path,” said Landsec in planning documents submitted to the council.

It added that the building’s construction and internal configuration “means it is not suited to modern flexible working practices”, which advocate the combination of flexible working and social spaces.

“The building runs on gas-fired boilers and has a poor energy efficiency, requiring extensive works to bring it up to today’s standards, let alone future requirements to tackle the climate emergency,” said Landsec.

The neighbouring former FT Building is also vacant and undergoing extensive refurbishment works and extension, which Landsec said “provides a fleeting opportunity to redefine the immediate locality” by providing new public realm and public routes along with supporting amenity.

A number of local residents have submitted objections to the scheme, complaining about a perceived lack of consultation. Landsec was approached for comment on these objections.

According to the council’s report, the application was subject to one round of formal consultation, in May 2022. There were 102 objections from those consulted, with five in support.

It has also attracted criticism, from neighbouring Premier Inn, which stated that the proposed building is likely to have a “significant detrimental impact” on the hotel in a letter to Southwark Planning and Building Control.

The hotel chain went on to state it “contends that this form of development will have an unacceptable overbearing impact on the hotel”.

The site is part of Landsec’s pipeline of developments in the borough totalling around 1m sq ft of workspace and £1bn of investment.

If approved, the scheme is set to complete in 2026.

To send feedback, e-mail chante.bohitige@eg.co.uk or tweet @bohitige or @EGPropertyNews

Image © Bjarke Ingels Group

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