Tall buildings

The London Assembly Planning and Regeneration Committee published a tall buildings report – Do Tall Buildings Work in London? It states that tall buildings are not always delivering for residents at different stages of their lives. The Committee also heard evidence that flats in new tall buildings are often too expensive for those who need housing the most.

Recommendations in the report include the following:

• The GLA should conduct a housing typology assessment to understand what mixture of housing typologies London needs as part of its Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA).
• The GLA should also assess whether tall buildings are driving increasing land values, and conduct an assessment of the whole life carbon impacts of tall buildings and how they fit with sustainability goals of the London Plan.
• The GLA should produce guidance setting housing design standards specifically for tall residential buildings as part of the next London Plan.
• The GLA should work with London Councils to convene and resource an ‘Environment and sustainability in planning’ community of practice to enable Boroughs to share knowledge and expertise.