World Construction Network

Daily Newsletter

08 August 2023

Daily Newsletter

British construction company McAleer & Rushe has begun work on the £138m Southbank Place Building 5 development in London.

Building 5 is the final phase of the Southbank Place development and Shell Tower Masterplan at London’s South Bank. It is located just 100m from the city's landmark, the London Eye.

Braeburn Estates, a joint venture between Qatari Diar Europe and Canary Wharf Group, is executing the master plan, which is a mixed-use development located inside the South Bank Conservation Area.

The 13-storey building on Belvedere Road will feature 92 apartment units and an additional 18,600ft² of retail space that is expected to bolster the area’s well-established public and retail offerings.

McAleer & Rushe senior director Jonathan O’Neill said: “We are thrilled to have been entrusted with the delivery of the final development phase of Southbank Place, a standout riverside development overlooking Central London, Big Ben, and [the] Houses of Parliament, making it one of the most desirable prime residential schemes in the city.

“The project demands a top level of expertise and experience with detailed high-specification schemes, which is an excellent fit for our long-standing reputation in the hotel and residential sectors and further reinforces our position as one of the leading construction partners for significant schemes in London.

“We look forward to working closely with Qatari Diar and Canary Wharf Group to bring forward the final piece to their visionary development.”

ESG 2.0 marks a shift towards stricter environmental rules

ESG is moving into a different era, which we call ESG 2.0. While ESG 1.0 was driven by voluntary corporate action, spurred by pressure from activist consumers and investors, ESG 2.0 is being driven by a new wave of government policies. The EU has taken the regulatory lead, with rules introduced or in the pipeline that will price emissions, regulate the use of the terms ‘ESG’ and ‘sustainability’ in marketing materials, and make ESG reporting mandatory. The US has taken a different approach, favoring less regulation and more financial support in the form of tax breaks for clean industry (renewables plus nuclear and hydrogen). China is planning to expand its emissions trading system to more sectors, decarbonize its heavy industry, and ramp up its use of renewables. The new policy direction is mainly motivated by the ambition to hit net zero emissions targets. But on top of this, governments are now competing for clean industry and trying to challenge China’s leadership on the production of the world’s green technologies such as solar panels and batteries, as well as the production and refinement of materials needed for energy transition such as lithium. These driving forces are leading to policy that will impact every sector, not just heavy industry, and will keep ESG near the top of the regulatory agenda over the longer term.