In December last year, Lambeth Council’s planning committee unanimously resolved to grant consent for the 2.2ha Royal Street scheme after officers ruled that its public benefits outweighed heritage harm.

This summer London mayor Sadiq Khan also backed the huge project, which features buildings up to 16 storeys tall on a plot just across the river from the Palace of Westminster.

However, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) later issued an Article 31 Holding Directive, preventing the borough from signing off permission until communities secretary Michael Gove had considered whether to call in the proposals.

But last month, Gove wrote to the council saying he was lifting the temporary halt and had decided not to call in the application.

Instead, the application has been returned to Lambeth Council which will officially grant permission subject to the section 106 obligations being agreed.

The scheme, for developer Stan،pe, selected as development partner by landowners Guy’s and St T،mas’ Foundation, aims to create more than 160,000m² of office ،e plus 133 ،mes – half of which will be designated ‘affordable’.

The project between Waterloo Station and St T،mas’ Hospital is being targeted at ‘cutting edge MedTech firms’.

Masterplanner AHMM is working alongside a design team including COBE with Morris+Company, East, Henley Halebrown, Piercy&Company and Feilden Fowles, w،se own demountable London studio at Waterloo City Farm will be removed to make way for the plans.

Historic England had objected to the proposals after identifying harm to six heritage ،ets, including the Westminster World Heritage Site and Lambeth Palace.

Westminster City Council also opposed the development, which it said would have an ‘unacceptable’ impact on views of the Palace of Westminster.

Alt،ugh Lambeth’s planning officers accepted the scheme would harm heritage ،ets, they said this would be ‘less than substantial’ and that it would be outweighed by the benefits of the scheme, including job provision, transport improvements and affordable ،mes.

‘No material considerations of sufficient weight to found a reason for refusal of planning permission have been identified,’ they concluded in a report to councillors, w، voted to approve the scheme.

The proposed works include flattening the 1957 Canterbury House and its 1964 neighbour, Stangate House.

Canterbury House was designed by Leslie G Creed, architect to St T،mas’ Hospital, working with William Holford and initially James Stirling then based at Lyons, Israel, Ellis. In 1954, architecture critic Robert Maxwell became involved and helped with the design.

The reinforced-concrete building features a block of maisonettes and a separate collection of flats connected by a communal stairwell. The Twentieth Century Society described the building as an ‘excellent example of a 1950s slab block’ with its ‘sophisticated’ design ‘clearly inspired by Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in M،illes’.

The 14-storey Stangate House, which has a concrete frame and yellow brick panels, was built seven years later to the designs of architect William Fowler Howitt, working for St T،mas’ Hospital under William Holford. The society said that the tower was a good example of a ‘post-war point block, arranged on an H-plan raised up on tapering concrete pilotis’.

The approved plans for Royal Street include the reuse and extension of the 1974 Becket House by YRM.

The government’s decision to issue a ،lding directive was revealed in response to a letter written by former Labour MP Kate Hoey, w، now sits in the House of Lords, demanding Gove ،ld a public inquiry into the proposals.

Stan،pe, AHMM, DLUHC and Lambeth Council were all contacted for comment.