English Heritage has pledged support for the £5.5bn renovation of London's Battersea Power Station, in a letter to Wandsworth Council.

The news will be a welcome boost to Irish developers, Treasury Holdings, who, with their Rafael Viñoly-designed scheme, are the latest in a long line of firms that have tried to rejuvenate the site.

The letter said: “As a long-standing 'Building at Risk', we welcome the plans for the reuse of the Grade II-listed Battersea Power Station and have no objections in principle to the redevelopment of the site for the uses proposed.

“The imposing structure remains as a physical reminder of the capital's industrial heritage and we welcome the current efforts to create a future for the building and its surrounding site.”

Rob Tincknell, managing director of Treasury Holdings, said: “We now have broad support to proceed from all the key stakeholders, and there is growing appreciation that the project will now finally go ahead and the power station will be saved.”

However, English Heritage did raise concerns that the “scale and density of the proposed new development...risks causing harm to the setting and views of the power station”.

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment pledged its support in February, and the project has received local support.

The proposals, which have already been submitted to Wandsworth Council, boast 700,000sq ft (65,032sq m) of restaurant and retail space, a hotel, community facilities and a conference centre.