Who's who of London property congratulates City planning chief

Posted by: Giles Barrie

6 December 2010

Any lunatic wanting to wipe out the London property market could have done so by blowing up the City’s Goldsmiths Hall on Friday.

Luckily we all got away unscathed, as 150 of the Great and the Good gathered to celebrate 25 years as chief City planning officer for Peter Rees.

Organised by Sir Stuart Lipton and hosted by his Chelsfield Partners, British Land, Hammerson, Heron, Land Securities and planning experts DP9, the lunch was attended by a who’s who of the property world.

Chris Grigg, David Atkins, Gerald Ronson and Francis Salway were there from the hosts, as well as Canary Wharf chief George Iacobescu, Derwent London boss John Burns and a clutch of top architects.

Lord Rogers dressed down in what looked like an old fishing jumper, and was joined by Will Alsop, Eric Parry, John McAslan, Lee Polisano and Rab Bennetts.

Lipton’s speech gave us a reminder of how the City looked and felt when Rees arrived from Lambeth Council in 1987.

`I remember going to [law firm] Herbert Smith with fires in the grates and gentleman in top hats. I remember agents who didn’t understand public space, simply because it was not rentable space.

`I remember how we all thought of Paris and Frankfurt as competitors – now we just think of Paris as for restaurants and Frankfurt, well, we don’t think of that for anything at all.’

Rees responded by calling the assembled developers part of `our team that has shared a love of London and for the Square Mile’.

Only in the City, with its unashamedly pro-development stance, could the property industry embrace the chief planner so warmly. But at the same time only Rees, with his willingness to take risks and attention to detail, would have been treated with such respect.