The head of the British Property Federation has attacked the UN body that polices the preservation of world heritage sites for threatening to put the Tower of London on its 鈥渆ndangered鈥� list

Unesco this week said it may classify a number of UK world heritage sites as endangered because of the impact of planned tall buildings such as the Shard of Glass near the Tower of London.

Liz Peace, BPF鈥檚 chief executive, said: 鈥淗ow dare Unesco criticise us? There鈥檚 plenty of other sites in the world they could be giving their attention to. One might ask they put in a little more effort to protect [Cambodian forgotten city] Angkor Wat.

鈥淚f they鈥檙e saying the whole of the City of London has to be subservient to Unesco, what kind of message does that send about London鈥檚 status as the leading financial centre? It鈥檚 impossible to have a proper functioning economic centre if you鈥檙e only worried about heritage.鈥�

Peace was speaking as the BPF launched a report on tall buildings designed to persuade London mayor Boris Johnson of the case for more towers.

The news came as the joint public inquiry into Ian Simpson and Wilkinson Eyre鈥檚 Blackfriars towers began in London. English Heritage said the developments on the South Bank would 鈥渃ontribute to a harmful erosion of the setting of nationally important heritage assets in central London鈥�, and one Westminster councillor called the designs 鈥渢owering monstrosities鈥�.

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