The number of tall buildings in the pipeline in London increased in 2018, with more proposals submitted for outer areas of the capital due to demand for Build to Rent and co-living.
The annual tall buildings survey 2019 from New London Architecture, says that the overall rise is consistent with recent trends and reveals that there is a continuing appetite for tower blocks despite economic and political uncertainties.
With more planning approvals in 2018 than 2017 and a slower rate of completions across the pipeline, the total number of tall buildings in the pipeline continues to build up. The current pipeline now stands at 541 buildings for the year 2018, up from 510 in 2017.
The report says that planning policies continue to encourage tall buildings in London, with the pipeline including a number of schemes that have returned via planning re-submissions or amendments with taller buildings proposed than originally submitted.
The projected completion number for 2019 is for 76 tall buildings, which is three times more than the completions for 2018 but the report points out that there are a range of circumstance that may impact this delivery but with 40 tall building starts in 2017 and 38 starts in 2018 it is expected that many of these will be finished in 2019 as projected.
In terms of geography, East London remains the main concentration for new tall buildings while Outer London represents a more active rate of growth than Inner London with most of this growth concentrated on seven Outer London boroughs with Barking and Dagenham, Brent and Ealing seeing largest increase in activity. Tower Hamlets, Greenwich and Southwark lead the field for having the most tall buildings in the overall pipeline for 2018.
Average heights of tall buildings remains firmly in the 20 to 29 storey bracket with taller buildings of 40 plus storeys being the exception rather than the norm. Proposals are emerging largely in areas with existing tall buildings or as a minimum, existing higher-density development and in areas of good public transport accessibility.
When considered against housing requirements for London, with more than 110,000 residential units proposed within the pipeline, tall buildings continue to be a major contribution towards London’s housing supply.
Southwark and Tower Hamlet’s emerging more open approach to tall buildings proposals may mean that they continue to remain as two of the most active boroughs within London for tall buildings, the report says.
It adds that Outer London is likely to continue to grow upwards in clusters around transport infrastructure and opportunity areas such as Acton, Barking, Hayes and Harlington, Southall, Stratford and Woolwich. These are also areas less restricted by restricted views and thus height restrictions.
It points out that the effect of Crossrail, the Bakerloo line extension and HS2, is yet to be fully understood, but it is clear from the pipeline that areas close to new transport infrastructure continue to see tall buildings proposals emerge.
The survey also found that tall buildings are taking longer to complete, and this can be for multiple reasons, such as skills shortages, changing project delivery timescales and financial viability issues. In other cases, over-optimistic predictions can play a role in increasing the number of expected completions in a certain year, however, in considering the statistics of the preceding two years it is conceivable that more than 60 tall buildings could be completed in 2019.
‘This year’s research confirms that tall buildings are now an established component of London’s development programme. In spite of the current political uncertainty the pipeline remains steady,’ said Peter Murray, chairman of New London Architecture.
‘These buildings are not super tall, they are generally between 20 and 30 storeys. Even Westminster, a borough known for its conservative views on tall buildings, has proposed 20 storeys as being acceptable in the Paddington opportunity area following extensive consultation with residents,’ he pointed out.
‘The NLA continues to call for the greater use of computer modelling by planners to assess the impact of taller buildings and will do so until City Hall has the capability to draw together data from all boroughs in order to better understand the wider and cumulative impact of new proposals,’ he added.
