![\"130](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2020978_130new2_867597.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The City of London saw the highest number of planning applications for a decade this year despite recent studies showing a marked slowdown in commercial construction activity across the capital.<\/p>\n
Planners at the City of London Corporation said the figures were a signal of \u201chuge and rising demand\u201d for premium office space in the Square Mile.<\/p>\n
The number of major applications, those containing more than 100,000sq m of floorspace, is also the highest in five years and up 36% on last year, according to the City.<\/p>\n
It comes two weeks after Turner & Townsend Alinea published research showing the capital\u2019s commercial sector was facing a long-term decline with output now a third smaller than it was during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
But the consultant\u2019s London market report also found signs of renewed confidence in the office sector including a slight dip in the office vacancy rate from 8.1% to 7.8% during the second quarter of this year and rising take-up by occupiers for large transactions.<\/p>\n
According to Avison Young, the office vacancy rate is much lower for grade A office towers in the City at between 1.9% and 2.6% amid signs that the asset type is nearing capacity, with 22 Bishopsgate now fully occupied.<\/p>\n
Major tower schemes currently underway including Keltbray carrying out strip out work at the site of the 74-storey 1 Undershaft, set to be the tallest building in the Square Mile, although a main contractor is not expected until later next year or 2027.<\/p>\n
Other large schemes set to start on site early next year include 85 and 60 Gracechurch Street, due to be built by Mace and Bovis respectively.<\/p>\n
The City granted planning permission to more than 500,000sq m of office space over the past year, around half of which is already under construction across 20 major office schemes, including eight new towers.<\/p>\n
Major applications approved this year include RSHP\u2019s 99 Bishopsgate, Wilkinson Eyre\u2019s 130 Fenchurch Street, Fletcher Priest\u2019s 63 St Mary Axe and KPF\u2019s 70 Gracechurch Street.<\/p>\n
Tom Sleigh, chairman of the City\u2019s planning and transportation committee, said the City was \u201conce again showing the rest of the country how to plan for growth\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not just buildings but commitments to Britain\u2019s economic future. Our planning pipeline is powering the City\u2019s evolution into a more sustainable, better connected, and more vibrant destination for businesses, workers and visitors alike,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The City is also set to adopt a new Local Plan in the first half of next year which will set a blueprint for future growth in the district alongside new guidance on sustainability and carbon reduction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of London saw the highest number of planning applications for a decade this year despite recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-323815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}