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Sadiq Khan backs tall buildings ... if they enhance London's skyline

Skyscrapers: the City of London
Skyscrapers: the City of London

Sadiq Khan today warned that new tall buildings must enhance the capital’s skyline rather than blight it.

The Mayor of London also said key criteria for residential tower blocks should be that they help to tackle the city’s housing crisis rather than simply providing investment opportunities for the wealthy.

But Mr Khan believes skyscrapers and other tall buildings have a “role to play” in London, though they had to be of first-class design standard.

City Hall laid out the Mayor’s stance on building upwards after Westminster moved to open the door to more tower blocks going up in central London.

Tall building backing: Sadiq Khan (PA)
Tall building backing: Sadiq Khan (PA)

A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “The Mayor is the guardian of London’s skyline and is committed to ensuring new developments are of the highest possible design standard.

“Without doubt, tall buildings have a role to play in London but they should only be built in suitable areas, contribute positively to the skyline and their locality and, if residential, should help ease the capital’s housing crisis.” The Mayor can call in planning applications for new tall buildings if the development would have significant impacts that are likely to affect more than one borough, would have a significant impact on the implementation of the London Plan, and there are sound planning reasons for intervention.

Westminster council has previously been accused of having an approach to new tall buildings that was too conservationist. It has to take into account the need to protect the Palace of Westminster as a world heritage site and not to blight sightlines to it or St Paul’s.

But developers have seized on the prospect of a less stringent attitude after the local authority launched a consultation on more tall buildings.

Councillor Daniel Astaire, the council’s cabinet member for planning and public realm, has said he is “open to taller and higher buildings as a matter of policy” but that this would have to mean “appropriate buildings in appropriate places”. He believes one such area could be the corridor from Park Lane to Marble Arch. Paddington, Victoria and Tottenham Court Road could also be chosen for new towers.