Over-site building boom in prospect for London

A Chartered Institute of Building [CIOB] product story

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Feb 24, 2006

17 sites mostly in the Cities of London and Westminster are being sized up by development companies with a view to exploring their potential for over-site developments as airspace buildings.

The fact that Crossrail promises a building boom in the Greater London Region became plain when it was disclosed to the Select Committee examining the Crossrail Bill that some 17 sites mostly in the Cities of London and Westminster are being sized up by development companies with a view to exploring their potential for over-site developments as airspace buildings.

None of these projects will fructify until Crossrail is completed, but the fact that they are being discussed at this stage demonstrates the economic strength of what the Westminster and City of London authorities wish to safeguard as two of the most valuable and dynamic property investment portfolios in the world.

It is excellent news that in this respect the policies of the Secretary of State and the London planning authorities have to a large extent been brought into harmony, a tribute to the moderating force of the hybrid Bill procedure.

On the appointment of Douglas Oakervee as part-time chairman of Cross London Rail Links .

(CLRL), Crossrail has quoted a cost estimate of £16 billion for construction of this East-West rail link, in line with the £15 to £16 billion current prices figure quoted by Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Transport, at the time of the Crossrail Bill's Second Reading in July last year.

Previously, Crossrail executives have preferred to quote the £10 billion estimate at the 2002 price level, which suggests that the estimate has recently been firmed up in the light of discussions over the funding of what Mr.Darling called 'this massive engineering enterprise'.

At the same time, Keith Berryman's appointment as managing director of the Crossrail project will be widely welcomed.

He has carried the main burden of top management through the period during which a new chief executive was being sought in succession to Norman Haste.