ACAN Existing Buildings Group
ACAN, along with the many others across our industry fighting to mitigate climate breakdown, are hugely disappointed at this latest decision to allow the demolition of the flagship M&S building on Oxford Street.
Whilst acknowledging that the current Government's discretion on this decision was fundamentally proscribed by the High Court ruling against the previous Government earlier this year, this further highlights the urgent need to update the National Planning Policy Framework to properly protect the existing buildings of this country, locking-in their intrinsic embodied carbon with a presumption for low-carbon retrofit.
We would also call on M&S themselves to reconsider the ethics of their decision to redevelop this site, with all the carbon costs that entails, irrespective of this latest decision. Indeed we believe that they are obliged to if they are to remain true to the net zero carbon aspirations and commitments they themselves set out in their own Plan A: Our Planet roadmap.
Irrespective of these demands, the M&S Oxford Street planning battle over the last three years has highlighted not only the growing strength of voices across industry and society for the necessary retention of existing buildings.
Simon Sturgis said at an ACAN meeting in June 2023: “New construction is an existential threat to humanity”.
If we are to have any chance of meeting the CCC net zero targets of 78% reduction in emissions by 2035, developers should be looking to adapt and reuse existing buildings, this significantly reduces CO2 emissions and is in line with net zero aspirations.
ACAN is committed to campaigning against demolition and is developing a demolition map highlighting buildings threatened with demolition.
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