Planners want revamps rather new builds where “this is the most sustainable and suitable approach for a site”

The City of London has unveiled proposals on what it expects to see from developers planning new schemes in the Square Mile in the coming years.

Top of the list in its Sustainability Supplementary Planning Document is retrofit and reuse which it said will “outline the ‘retrofit first’ approach, promoting the reuse of existing buildings where this is the most sustainable and suitable approach for a site”.

Also in the guidance, which was approved yesterday, is energy use and whole life cycle carbon emissions, climate resilience and biodiversity and urban greening.

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City planners want to see retrofit ‘where appropriate’

The chairman of the City of London Corporation’s planning and transport committee, Shravan Joshi, said: “The City of London is home to some of the most sustainable buildings on the planet and as it continues to be a hugely attractive place for office occupiers, we are confident that investors and developers will continue with us on the path to a sustainable Square Mile.”

Retrofit work currently under construction in London, according to the latest crane survey by Deloitte, and Buckley Gray Yeoman itself recently submitted plans to overhaul a brutalist office block in the City of London and another 1970s block in Holborn.