New London Architecture (NLA) and GL Hearn have released the results of their annual London Tall Buildings Survey 12 months since they highlighted that 236 tall buildings were planned for the capital as part of NLA’s London’s ‘Growing Up!’ insight study and exhibition.  

The new data finds 263 tall buildings over 20-storeys have been proposed, approved or are already under construction within Greater 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.

As London faces an all-time population high of 8.6m 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.