Derwent London plans to spend £220 million on refurbishment and redevelopment in London

Refurbishment and regeneration work is planned by office developer Derwent London Plc from 2011 onwards at a total cost of £220 million, it was announced on Monday.

London’s West End Theatre area is set to benefit greatly from the schemes with £60 million set aside by the real estate investment trust for significant redevelopment.Chief Executive John Burns said: “Planning [permission] in the market we’re operating in … is quite hard to obtain. We’ve got a programme and it is very manageable. We think there’s good demand in the West End”.

The amount of office space the plans will cover stands at about 300,000 square feet with part of the process already started in the West End.

Burns said: “In addition to our current projects, we are progressing our plans for a number of refurbishment and regeneration schemes for commencement in 2011 and 2012”.

He continued: “Despite economic conditions remaining difficult, our central London operating market has performed well”.

Derwent reported 21 lettings in the first quarter of this year leading to an income of £2.2 million.

It also plans to complete the Angel Building development to provide companies with Central London office space, which is made up of 263,000 square feet of office space and is 53 per cent pre-let already.