TfL says developer has ‘paused’ £600m Waterloo office scheme that was given planning three years ago

Transport for London says HB Reavis has “paused” one of London’s largest office schemes following a disagreement over a lift shaft.

The 31-storey Elizabeth House scheme would stretch for more than 200m along the side of Waterloo station and contain 155,000 sq m of floorspace, more than 22 Bishopsgate or the proposed 1 Undershaft.

Valued at £600m in 2017, it was given final sign off by Lambeth council in 2021 following the conclusion of a section 106 agreement requiring its developer HB Reavis to contribute £1.8m towards a lift shaft which would allow the future construction of step free access to the Northern line, which runs underneath the site.

But Transport for London (TfL), which was expected to pay the remaining £2.7m towards the lift shaft works, has now claimed work on the AHMM-designed office has been “paused at the request of the developer”.

Sources close to the project have told Building that HB Reavis has not requested to pause the scheme and said the reason why the claim was made was a “question for TfL”.

Both TfL and HB Reavis declined to comment.

Only minor enabling works on the development have so far been carried out and the site’s existing 1960s building has not yet been demolished to allow construction work on the new office to start.

TfL’s claim was included in a quarterly report published last month tracking the progress of the project. 

In the previous report, the transport body said it was continuing to “finalise agreements to ensure step-free access to the Northern line platforms is secured before the redevelopment of Elizabeth House is completed”.

It is understood the lift shaft is HB Reavis’ last remaining third party agreement on the scheme, which would be built by the firm’s own construction division once the deal is signed.

Council documents state that the project presented a “once in a generation opportunity” to enable step free access to the Northern line as the lift shaft could only be excavated during the course of the redevelopment due to site constraints.

The tunneling down to the deep level platform had an estimated price tag of £4.5m in 2021, before the period of high construction cost inflation which followed the end of the pandemic and the start of the Ukraine war.

Similar enabling works to allow step free access to the Bakerloo line, which also runs beneath the site, can be completed at any time and are not part of the Elizabeth House redevelopment.

The total cost of completing the works to both lines, which would also include two diagonal lifts serving the main ticket hall, was estimated at £45m in 2021.