Over 30 years in planning roles across the capital, the last five of which as planning and development director for the City of London Corporation, Gwyn Richards has seen his fair share of upheaval: the financial crisis; Brexit; Trump; Covid; and Trump again, to name just a few.
But although some may fear change, Richards said the City of London should not: “We are not Belgravia. We are not Chelsea Riverside. This is a place that is actually fuelled by change… and you should embrace it.”
Richards is happy to be a cheerleader for change, describing himself as unashamedly pro-development and pro-growth. He sees himself as a facilitator, working within the limits of the City’s local plan to enable the development needed to maintain the Square Mile’s role as a global business centre.
Approving office towers will be key to this, he said, but so will making sure that those towers create a “more inclusive, democratic redefining of what tall buildings are”.
This strategy forms a part of the City of London Corporation’s Destination City programme, which looks to make the area a vibrant, seven-day-a-week hub for workers, tourists and locals alike.
Taking inspiration from popular public spaces such as Sky Garden on the top floor of Lee Kum Kee Group’s Walkie Talkie at 20 Fenchurch Street, the corporation began encouraging the provision of more public viewing galleries and community spaces within developments.
It started early in Richards’ tenure with buildings such as Generali Real Estate’s Fen Court at 120 Fenchurch Street, and continues to feature even in more recent schemes – with Aroland Holding and Stanhope’s 1 Undershaft housing London Museum and Brookfield Properties’ 26,000 sq ft pavilion space at 99 Bishopsgate set to be occupied by charity Intermission Youth.
Anyone who knows Richards or is a keen follower of his LinkedIn posts will know how much of a passion project it has become for him – just hearing Richards’ name, one source immediately said: “Loves a roof terrace.”
“I guess it keeps tabs on the operators, making sure they deliver what they should be delivering,” Richards said about his love of dropping in on City projects – the weekend before meeting Estates Gazette he had been to the roof garden at Fen Court on his way to watch semi-professional football team Fisher Athletic FC play in Bermondsey. “But that’s not been a problem.”
Disciplined discussion
Richards hopes his approach to planning is collaborative and transparent from the get-go to avoid there ever being the possibility of any disruption.
With sustainability targets, for example, Richards said all avenues are discussed in the first City Corporation meeting with developers – such as carbon savings which can be made through retaining some of an existing building’s structure, or the emissions over the 60-year life of a proposed building and its carbon footprint in operation.
“We had to discipline the approach because there was a danger this kind of embedded carbon debate was going to be a Trojan horse for people who wanted to stop development,” he said.
He said this means “we’re all on the same page, we’ve prioritised issues so that by the end we have a ready scheme”.
“You have to bring the development industry along with you… if you asked about [sustainability] seven or eight years ago, it would be struggle. But now sustainability is a vital bit of the DNA of the building,” he added.
The importance of making the planning process seamless is pertinent now, with the cost of construction still high.
“That’s the reality on the ground,” Richards said. “It’s such a challenging place, where people have so many risks they need to balance before the investors decide to spend together on a £1bn project.”
Richards said the corporation tries to help, learning about the industry’s needs through open dialogue with groups such as trade body City Property Association and pulling whatever levers it can – whether that is phasing CIL payments, adapting cycle infrastructure requirements in response to the growth of short-term bike rentals through companies such as Lime, or making certain change-of-use applications easier.
Historic objectionability
The City will consider doing what it can – but not all potential obstacles to development fall within its remit.
A few months back, responding to a question at a CPA event, Richards described heritage body opposition to major projects in the Square Mile as “the single biggest risk to the City.”
Asked about it again, Richards pointed to those same issues weighing on developers’ and investors’ minds.
“They require boards of investors to ensure they can de-risk projects as much as possible before they commit to building,” he said. “This is why that question was raised at the CPA event about the quite consistent objections or raising concerns from Historic England. This just adds another level of risk.”
While the City has designated an area for clustering tall buildings to minimise harm to local heritage assets, Richards said Historic England has seemingly changed its attitude to development within the area in recent years.
He said there appeared to be a step change around 2020, with it previously having “understood the need for growth and for the cluster to consolidate”.
Since then, Richards said objections have been consistent and he believes the consequences could ripple through the industry. “This is coming from developers and investors… the level of objections and concern that’s being raised is really diminishing investor appetite to invest in the City. That wasn’t a risk anybody budgeted for before 2020-2021 – now it’s pretty much front and centre.
“Often that triggers the worry that a scheme is going to get called in, which is something we have avoided as [the] City. When a scheme gets called in, it puts the breaks on it. You can have a decision in two years’ time, like with M&S on Oxford Street, so it is a risk that many developers won’t want to take.”
Richards said when Historic England objects, it creates an increased risk that a scheme will be called in, which, in turn, could undermine confidence in the reliability of the planning process and deter investment as a result.
“It’s particularly challenging because of the impact on growth and investor confidence at a really challenging time for the economy… that’s the kind of disconnect we see at the moment,” he said.
“We have always maintained a good relationship with Historic England,” he added. “We want to build on that and we are engaging with them frequently and hopefully we will get to a better place – but at the moment it’s challenging.”
Ross Sayers, chair of the CPA and head of development management at Landsec, agrees. “The planning process has become more challenging, with increasingly onerous objections from heritage and campaign groups a particular area of concern,” Sayers said.
“This blend of the old and the new, often cheek by jowl, is in part what makes the area so special. The City has evolved for hundreds of years and we cannot expect it to be preserved in aspic, especially if we are to support the level of growth the government has clearly set out,” Sayers added. ”A pragmatic, working relationship between all parties has never been more important than it is now.”
Despite the friction between the two groups, Richards said objections will occur and, regardless of officer recommendations, the committee may choose not to approve a scheme – that is just part of the job.
On 13 December, the City of London’s planning sub-committee considered developer Welput’s proposals for a 44-storey office block at 31 Bury Street.
Development on the site was rejected by the committee for heritage protection reasons in 2021 due to the impact on the neighbouring Bevis Marks Synagogue. The new proposals received more than 1,400 objections over issues such as loss of light.
The debate was heated, Richards said – speaking at the meeting, one objector said: “It sounds like the officer’s recommendation completely disregards the tradition… as well as the importance of multiculturalism and religious tolerance.”
While the application was ultimately refused, Richards said the process was an example of the ways in which planning teams can become the focus of substantial criticism.
“We thought that the scheme was in a position where we were able to recommend it for approval. Clearly that wasn’t the view of the committee – we absolutely respect that,” he said.
“My team was subject to quite a lot of criticism… they do their job professionally, objectively, impartially,” he added. “And I have to remind the people of our committee to please respect those public servants because they’re just doing their jobs.”
Cooking up a cultural hotspot
Most proposed developments are, however, less controversial. Under Richards’ guidance, the City’s planning department has actively sought to diversify its cultural offering through its Destination City programme.
“We have a register of cultural occupiers who are looking for a home,” he said. “After Covid, when footfall collapsed. we created a list and we get them to talk to a developer and work it out.”
Examples include the Migration Museum, which was given 60,000 sq ft of space rent-free in Dominus’ student accommodation development at 65 Crutched Friars.
Speaking at a recent CPA event, Jay Ahluwalia, principal director of Dominus, pointed to the City’s Culture Mile as an area set to grow over the coming years, in part due to the open support its business improvement district gets from Richards’ planning team.
“All of those cultural spaces, all of those elevated public areas, are there to make sure there’s a different demographic that comes in,” he said. “We have a very good relationship with the BIDs, so it’s a big team effort.”
The City is finding scope to diversify in other ways, too – for example through its increasingly varied gastronomical offerings, such as the recent addition Sandwich Sandwich on Gresham Street.
“The wonderful thing about that is that it responds to what people want… suddenly there’s a certain genre that’s in favour – it was Mexican burritos and then it was Vietnamese… that gastronomic culture really makes a place special, makes people want to go in and work there instead of sitting at home,” said Richards.
With these things it helps to have someone with good judgment holding the reins – even before his roles in the City, Richards spent 12 years in senior planning roles in F&B hotspots such as Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster councils, so he clearly has the CV to back it up. But, naturally, taste is important with these things.
While Richards did not want to pick a favourite lunch option, for the sake of impartiality, he did agree that Estates Gazette’s favourite curry spot, a Post Office at 45 London Wall, is “amazing”.
Clearly, the City is in good hands.
Image from City Corp
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