Legal brief: Property market wakes from the dead
After months and months of being stuck in the doldrums the property market is at last beginning to see some signs of life.
As we reported on Wednesday (4 November) the US State Department has signed a deal to sell its UK Embassy at Grosvenor Sqaure with law firms Herbert Smith, Maples Teesdale and Lovells bagging key roles.
The US will vacate the iconic building at 20-34 Grosvenor Square in London’s swanky Mayfair district as part of a scheme to relocate to a new high-security site bordering the River Thames at Nine Elms in Battersea (read full article).
Further up the road, meanwhile, Ashurst and Herbert Smith are advising on the £5.5bn proposed redevelopment of Battersea Power Station. Plans for the regeneration of the site have changed in recent years, with proposals for the 40-acre site being scaled back. The new project includes 3,700 homes, 1.6m sq ft of office space and 500,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant space. The planning application was registered with Wandsworth Council earlier this month (read full article).
Elsewhere the postal workers’ strike and potential industrial action by British Airways (BA) staff has thrown John Hendy QC of Old Square Chambers back into the limelight.
Hendy has been instructed by partner Steve Cottingham at trade union firm OH Parsons & Partners to act for the Unite union in its High Court action against BA. Meanwhile, he will also appear in the High Court today (6 November) to represent the Communication Workers Union (CWU) in an effort to stop Royal Mail from employing 30,000 agency workers while its members are on strike (see story).
