Planning -- Listed Building -- Alteration or Demolition -- Compensation

The Prudential Assurance Company owned a block of buildings on the corner of Bond Street and Piccadilly. Part of the block, known as Qantas House, was a listed building. The obvious reason for the listing was the elegance of the façade of this building; a less obvious reason was apparently the importance of the chimney breasts and chimney stacks contiguous with the façade.

   On the 6th July 1988 the Prudential obtained listed building consent and planning permission to demolish the entire block with the exception of the façade and the chimney breasts and chimney stacks of Qantas House.

   If the Prudential had applied to demolish the whole building including the chimney stacks and chimney breasts retaining only the façade and this had been refused they would not have been entitled to compensation. The Prudential might well have wished for permission to demolish the chimney stacks and breasts because by doing so extra floor space would be available in the new building to be erected behind the façade. However although refusal would have resulted in loss of valuable floor space they would not have been entitled to compensation.

   The building then changed hands and the appellants became the owners. The appellants proceeded to demolish the building in accordance with the listed building consent and by June 1990 all that remained were the façade and the chimney breasts and chimney stacks supported by temporary steel work. The appellants then applied for listed building consent to demolish the internal chimney breasts which was refused on appeal by the Secretary of State. The reason why the appellants wished to demolish the chimney breasts was to provide more floor space which they value at £1,800,000.

   In order to entitle themselves to claim this £1,800,000 of compensation the appellants argue that the demolition of the chimney breasts and the infilling of the voids thereby created in the floors should be regarded not as a demolition of part of a listed building but as an alteration to a listed building the refusal of which entitles them to compensation of £1,800,000.

   The respondents, who were the local planning authority, claimed that the work which the appellants sought to do was demolition and so did not entitle them to compensation^[1].

Held, Lord Griffiths^[2] dissenting, that the appeal would be allowed^[3].

Their Lordships referred to six cases^[4].