Over 100 new tall buildings are in London's development pipeline since this time last year, according to a new report.

The research, published by New London Architecture (NLA) and GLHearn, reveals the 119 additional buildings takes the total number of tall buildings waiting to be built to 436.

The data includes buildings of 20 floors and over.

Key features of the report include:

• The research shows that since last year, the number of tall buildings that are under construction has increased from 70 to 89.

• A total of 233 tall buildings in London have planning approval but are yet to start on site and a further 114 towers are either in planning or at pre-application stage.

• 94 tall buildings were submitted for planning since this time last year, up from 72 in the previous year. Of these 43 were approved in the same year, albeit 32 of these form part of the Greenwich. Peninsula scheme, which has been developed through the planning system over a number of years. Three were refused and the rest await planning approval.


• A significant number of the tall buildings planned form parts of wider masterplans, which arrange multiple towers in clusters.

However, despite the figures, completion of tall buildings is still small, with only 19 tall buildings delivered over the last year.

While this is up from six in the 2015 report, a relatively small proportion of tall buildings are currently being delivered.

Chairman of New London Architecture, Peter Murray, is calling for a 'greater interaction' between the public sector and the planning system.

"We believe that well designed tall buildings in the right place, and well coordinated clusters, are acceptable," he said.

"It is increasingly important that the planning and development community improves the way it communicates with the wider public. We continue to press for the Mayor to prepare a three-dimensional computer model of the whole of London to better assess the impact of these buildings. The 436 tall buildings in the pipeline is a significant number.

"However, with the much publicized softening of the housing market, it remains to be seen how quickly they are delivered."

James Cook, Planning Director for GL Hearn, said: "The two most striking findings for us were about the number of applications for tall buildings submitted and approved over the course of the year and construction activity.

"The other very notable trend is that whilst the overall numbers increase, the level of construction activity remains relatively flat.

"We attribute this to the significant development and investment risk required to commit to construct tall buildings.

"Overall it is clear that delivery is a long way behind the pipeline and the planning system needs to continue to ensure any scheme that comes forward is carefully designed with architecture of the highest quality."

(LM)