"If London doesn’t grow up, it will need to grow out." Following last year's report, New London Architecture (NLA) in cooperation with GLHearn (an independent property consultancy) have released the results of their annual London Tall Buildings Survey. In 2014, they forecast 236 new tall buildings for the British capital, a figure which has risen to 263 buildings over twenty stories for 2015. Alongside this, they believe that around 14,800 new homes are "under construction for London."
See these numbers broken down after the break.
263 new tall buildings planned for London
- This figure includes 76 proposed or in the planning system, 117 with planning approval but not yet on site, and 70 under construction.
- Compared to last year’s data, this shows a significant increase in the number of towers under construction, up 56% from the 45 projects contained in the 2014 survey. It shows only a small increase of 3% in the number of proposed towers (up from 72), and a 6% decrease in the number of towers with planning approval but not yet on site (down from 113).
- In the last 12 months 72 towers over 20-storeys have been submitted for planning approval, 64 of which are residential. Of these, 27 (37%) have been granted planning permission, 4 (6%) have been refused, and 41 (57%) remain undecided.
Where in London?
- East, Central and South London will see the biggest rise in tall buildings, with 93% of all towers under construction and 96% of this year’s planning applications, in line with the Greater London Authority's opportunity areas for large-scale development.
- Tower Hamlets was at the heart of the tower boom last year and continues to see the most activity, with 18 tall buildings under construction, 27 with planning approval and 14 in planning.
- Other boroughs with a high concentration of towers under construction are Lambeth (11), Southwark (7) and Newham (7). The areas that have seen the most planning applications over the last 12-months, after Tower Hamlets, are Wandsworth (11), Greenwich (8) and Lambeth (10).
As London faces an all-time population high of 8.6 million people, and a continuing housing crisis, 62 of the 70 towers currently under construction are residential and could provide approximately 14,800 new homes for the capital. 80% of all 263 towers in the pipeline have a primary residential use, a number of which are likely to have ground floor commercial use.
Deputy Mayor of London for policy and planning, Sir Edward Lister, has said that “London remains a generally low rise city but with the capital set to be home to ten million people by 2030 there is no doubt that sensibly managed and well-designed tall buildings, which sit well within their surroundings, have a key role to play in meeting the challenge of our rapidly increasing population."
Shaun Andrews, Head of London Strategy at GLHearn has suggested that “if London doesn’t grow up, it will need to grow out. London clearly has a healthy pipeline of tall buildings but delivery on the ground has yet to really lift off. Many of the current projects are comprehensive developments with multiple towers in opportunity areas and other zones where high-rise buildings are being supported." He notes that "the number of schemes to have actively progressed through the planning system in the past 12 months is relatively small and construction activity will need to step up if London is to capitalise on the potential to increase housing stock.”
