Grand Designs star Kevin McCloud backs calls for new Grade III listing

Designer and Grand Designs star Kevin McCloud backs calls for new Grade III ‘listed’ classification to protect millions of Britain’s most iconic structures from demolition

• Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud is calling for a ‘Grade-III’ classification
• He said the safeguarding would protect millions of buildings from demolition 
• Instead, the Grade-III structures would be repurposed as homes or premises

The designer and television presenter Kevin McCloud has backed calls for a new grade III ‘listed’ classification to protect millions of buildings from demolition.

The 63-year-old host of the long-running hit TV series Grand Designs said it would be ‘a good thing’ to have safeguarding in place that saw buildings reused instead of being demolished.

Hundreds of thousands of structures across Britain have been assigned one of three ‘listed’ statuses, Grade I, Grade II* and Grade II, which means special permission is required for them to be altered.

But architects have suggested a new classification, Grade III, effectively covering the vast majority of structures which are not currently listed.

The idea was floated in a recent Architects’ Journal article, and has since been backed by the property supremo.

 The designer and television presenter Kevin McCloud has backed calls for a new grade III ‘listed’ classification to protect millions of buildings from demolition.

McCloud told the Times newspaper: ‘It would be a mechanism which asks a developer, an owner, an architect: “What’s the opportunity for reuse?”

‘We undermine our cultural identity by removing the great signifiers of it.

‘If you want a resilient culture or society, then that is a society which is proud of where it lives, of what it’s built of, what it’s done and wants to make use of it.’

It comes after Marks and Spencer announced plans to demolish and rebuild its flagship Oxford Street store in central London, prompting concerns from those who want to protect the early 20th century structure.

McCloud said: ‘It’s just lazy. You just haven’t thought about it and I think there is no excuse for that sort of intellectual or creative laziness. What it suggests is a complete lack of imagination.’

Grade II refers to structures that are of special interest. It is by far the most common designation, accounting for around nine out of every ten buildings with a listed status, including the BT Tower, the BBC’s Maida Vale studios, and Manchester Opera House.

Conversely, Grade I buildings account for less than 3 per cent of listed buildings, and are recognised for being of ‘exceptional interest’.

This includes Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Newcastle Central railway station.

In between the two, Grade II* properties are ‘particularly important buildings of more than special interest’.

Fishmongers’ Hall and the Old Vic theatre in London, and Soho House in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, are among those with Grade II* status.

Historic England, the body responsible for listing historic buildings, said ‘reusing and responsibly adapting our existing buildings, rather than demolishing and building new, can be a powerful way to reduce our carbon footprint’.

A spokesman said: ‘The embodied carbon within existing buildings would not be lost through demolition nor would further carbon emissions be produced through transportation and use of new materials.

‘Despite this, reusable buildings are demolished every year and new buildings, which require a huge amount of energy to build, then replace them.

‘Whilst there is a place and need for new construction, we should recognise the environmental benefits of re-use and look creatively at retrofitting or repurposing historic buildings before automatically building new.’

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