Stay alive til '25! Are we off the ventilator?

At the outset of this year “stay alive till ‘25” was the mantra. Well, we are nearly in ‘25 and I think most would agree it is good to get ‘24 behind us.

It's been a year that has been shaped by UK and US elections and characterised by dreadful wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. In the UK, it feels as if the State is totally dysfunctional, a bloated public sector that seems to want to work from home and an overburdened and over-taxed private sector that is expected to prop it all up. Any hopes that the new Labour government would spark the heady optimism of the early Blair years were quickly squashed by the Starmer/Reeves doom and gloom double act.

The architectural profession has always been sensitive to the ups and downs of the nation’s economy, as this year clearly demonstrates. Just before the UK election, when inflation was falling and the economy was growing, we sensed that the appetite for investment and development was improving, that proved to be short lived.

Some now predict that as we start 2025 the dust will have settled and we will have come to terms with the tax hike, and things should start moving again. This may be the case as the property market has always been nimble enough to adapt, land values will adjust and interest rates may fall, but the biggest problem is that construction costs seem unlikely to return to 2021 levels.

Despite there being around 9million out of work (21.8%) there is still a massive shortage of labour and especially skilled labour in the industry, this combined with raw material cost and adapting to new legislation will keep costs high.

This is the background to what has been a stop / start year for us, as a practice that works in the private sector in Central London. We have had to work very hard to win work and to ensure the high quality of the work we deliver. We have completed a range of projects across the portfolio and have eleven major projects on site with topping out ceremonies at four of them taking place this year, Woolgate, The Fitzrovia, Tower Bridge Court and 50 Berkeley Street. 2025 will see all of these projects complete and handed over.

We have also commenced design work on some significant projects, at Maida Vale Studios we are working with Hans Zimmer and Working Title Films to refurbish and transform this historic listed building into a 21^st century studio complex. Our work in the City continues with Finsbury Dials and Pinners Hall - and 41 Lothbury is now nearing completion.

We retained our place in the AJ 100, and have won a few more industry awards, Newsons Yard has led the charge on this front with wins at WAF (World Architecture Festival) and NLA.

As I said at the outset, it has been a tough year and we are indebted to our team who have shown resilience, ingenuity and commitment to bring us so much success. They contributed to Open City’s Young City Makers running workshops at a local primary school in the summer term, and for the second year we have supported the Reading Rome programme at the British School at Rome. This year Rudy Logue spent a week at the school on a programme lead by Witherford, Watson Mann.

Perhaps most importantly there have been two additions to our “extended family” congratulations to Emma and Aude who safely delivered baby girls this year.

So, to conclude, we have weathered worse storms than this, and I am confident that if we all continue to pull together we will come out of the other side in better shape. Here's to 2026!