Will Boris block the London skycrapers boom?
Written: 23rd May, 2008
Ken Livingstone gave the nod to many controversial towers that the new mayor is known to hate.London has undergone a building boom in recent years. According to Greater London Authority figures, 31,430 new homes were“delivered” in 2006-07, 83 per cent more than in 1999-2000. Many of these are small flats in towers of dubious aesthetic pedigree. This “build 'em high and damn the planners” approach was Ken Livingstone's solution to the capital's housing shortage. The new mayor, Boris Johnson, is known to disapprove of tall buildings that block historic views. He has pledged to shift the emphasis from flats to “more family homes with gardens” and spoken of his wish to see “dwellings of distinction and grace that satisfy the instinct for differentiation that is deep in the human soul”. His planning adviser, Sir Simon Milton, has been more frank: “This fetish for tall buildings will be a disaster for London.”