Historic England has written to ministers, warning a £220m scheme on the South Bank could cost Westminster its World Heritage Site status.
The government’s heritage watchdog is worried by the prospect of “irreversible damage” being inflicted on the site by new development, including Stanhope’s planned Royal Street scheme.
It has issued a sharp reminder to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport pointing out that the government has an international obligation to protect all the UK’s world heritage sites.
Stanhope plans to create a new 5.5-acre district, containing “businesses, restaurants, shops and homes, as well as laboratory space to develop cutting-edge new healthcare technologies”. The plans have been approved by Lambeth Council and the mayor of London, and are set to be signed off by levelling up secretary Michael Gove within the next month.
But Historic England and Westminster Council have objected to the impact this will have on the Palace of Westminster. It said: “The proposed development would harm the world heritage site and the ability to appreciate its OUV [outstanding universal value], incrementally obscuring its silhouette and further competing with its intentionally dominant scale on the Thames.”
Liverpool’s docks were recently stripped of its world heritage status by Unesco, which said that recent development had destroyed the area’s character.
