The Corporation of London is demanding tall buildings just to support its “turf war” against Canary Wharf, a Commons committee heard yesterday.
At a meeting of the DTLR Select Committee’s Urban Affairs sub-committee, Labour MPs Clive Betts and Christine Russell asked the Corporation for evidence that the City needed more office towers.
Betts said: “There appears to be a perfect place for tall buildings in London, and that is Canary Wharf.”
He added that the City was “calling for new tall buildings just so it can compete with Canary Wharf.”
Russell cited a 1998 London Planning Advisory Committee report, High buildings and strategic views in London, which found “no evidence that the competitive position of London is under threat through lack of new high buildings.”
However, the Corporation’s chief planner, Peter Rees, claimed that office towers were essential if London was to remain competitive.
“The City has grown by 10m sq ft in the past 10 years. That sort of growth cannot continue unless we start building upward,” he said.
Judith Mayhew, chair of the Corporation’s Policy & Resources committee, dismissed Canary Wharf “as good overspill space”, saying that only the City had the infrastructure for serious growth.
EGi News 23/01/02
