The City of London Corporation has today responded to a direction issued by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning requiring further examination of a specific aspect of the City Plan 2040.

The direction concerns the assessment of tall buildings and their impact on the Tower of London World Heritage Site. The Minister has asked for additional hearing sessions, to consider an alternative approach raised during the process, before the Planning Inspectors issue their final report.

The Corporation strongly disagrees with the decision and considers further hearings unnecessary.

This issue was examined in detail during the formal examination hearings, held over a year ago, and the Corporation sees no need to reopen a question that was scrutinised in full at that time.

City Plan is complete and ready for adoption, subject to the Main Modifications consulted on earlier this year, and is vital to supporting economic growth, investment and jobs, in the most highly productive part of the UK. This latest intervention will create a delay in the adoption of the Plan, although the extent of that delay is unclear. 

The Minister’s letter stressed that this is a targeted and technical request relating to a single aspect of the Plan. It does not call into question the overall soundness of the Plan and is considered a robust and deliverable strategy for the future of the Square Mile. The Corporation shares that view of the Plan’s soundness, which makes the delay harder to understand.

The intervention will delay adoption of the Plan, with the prolonged uncertainty to impact the decision making of developers and investors, putting at risk growth, investment and the jobs that depend on them. City Plan 2040 will also move the Square Mile to a ‘retrofit-first’ approach for development, which is critical for climate action.

Planning activity in the City reached a record high in 2025, with the highest number of planning applications received in a decade and more than 500,000 square metres of office floorspace granted permission, equivalent to more than seven ‘Gherkin’-sized buildings.

Around half of that floorspace is already under construction. Major schemes including 1 London (formerly 1 Undershaft), 60 and 85 Gracechurch Street are progressing, reflecting continued confidence in the Square Mile.

The Corporation will continue to approve and deliver major development against the City Plan 2040 target of at least 1.2 million square metres of net additional office floorspace over the plan period, anticipating that it will need to accommodate around 192,000 additional jobs by 2050, with historically low vacancy rates in its existing Grade A office space.

The Corporation also reaffirmed its commitment to protecting and enhancing the City’s historic environment, as set out in City Plan, by adopting it as soon as possible.

Chairman of the City of London Corporation Planning and Transportation Committee, Tom Sleigh, said:

“This is unnecessary and anti-growth. The issue was examined in full more than a year ago. The Inspectors heard it, and the Government’s own letter does not call into question the soundness of the Plan. To send a complete, ready-to-adopt plan back for more hearings on a settled point is the wrong call, and the cost will be missed economic growth. It beggars belief.

“City Plan 2040 is the framework investors and businesses commit to. Every month of delay is a month that certainty is missing, and schemes that were ready to proceed, with the investment behind them, are put at risk. London and the UK need this Plan adopted. This was avoidable, it is wrong, and it should be put right quickly.”

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