Central London Apartments - Canary Wharf
at sunset
Efforts to redevelop the docks began almost as soon as they
were closed, although it took a decade for most plans to move
beyond the drawing board and another decade for redevelopment
to take Central London Apartments full effect. The situation
was greatly complicated by the large number of landowners
involved: the PLA, the Greater London Council (GLC), the British
Gas Corporation, five borough councils, British Rail and the
Central Electricity Generating Board.
To address this problem, in 1981 the Secretary of State for
the Environment, Michael Heseltine, formed the London Docklands
Development Corporation (LDDC) to redevelop the area. This
was a statutory Central London Apartments body appointed and
funded by central government (a quango), with wide powers
to acquire and dispose of land in the Docklands. It also served
as the development planning authority for the area.
Another important government intervention was the designation
in 1982 of an enterprise zone, an area in which businesses
were exempt from property taxes and had other incentives,
including simplified planning and capital Central London Apartments allowances. This made investing in the Docklands
a significantly more attractive proposition and was instrumental
in starting a property boom in the area.
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