City Plan 2040 has passed its final inspector examination, with the Planning Inspectorate's report published on 14 October 2026 finding the plan sound subject to its main modifications. The report followed Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook's withdrawal of a direction that had required further examination of the City's tall-building approach around the Tower of London World Heritage Site.
The policy clearance arrives with a large consented office pipeline behind it. The City of London Corporation says more than 500,000 sq m of office space was granted permission during 2025, with around half already under construction, but Savills recorded just 0.9 million sq ft of City office development starts across seven schemes in H1 2026, all of them refurbishments. The skyline pipeline is large and conversion into new construction remains selective.
City of London office towers, August 2026. Photo: London Construction Magazine
The planning hurdle has moved
The City Corporation's examination record says the inspectors' final report was published on 14 October and concluded that City Plan 2040 is sound subject to the main modifications in the report. The inspectors also concluded that the City Cluster contours should remain unaltered following the additional hearing held on 2 September.
That closes the examination issue that had delayed adoption after the Government intervened in June over tall buildings and the setting of the Tower of London. The City Corporation said on 24 September that the plan would move through its internal committees with adoption targeted before the end of 2026.
The plan is not a construction instruction. It establishes the planning framework against which future applications will be judged, but individual developments still need to move through vacant possession, demolition, design, procurement, funding and mobilisation before they create main construction workload.
Prime office demand is still supporting selected schemes
The demand side is strongest at the upper end of the market. Savills reported Central London active requirements of 15.7 million sq ft at the end of H1 2026, 69% above the long-term average. Within the City, the Core vacancy rate was 5.9%, while prime rents reached £116.73 per sq ft, up 19% year on year. Average City Grade A rents reached £76.21 per sq ft, up 7%.
Those figures sit alongside a more cautious construction market. Deloitte's April 2026 London Office Crane Survey found that new construction starts across Central London fell 35% year on year during 2025 to about 4.8 million sq ft across 57 schemes. Refurbishments accounted for 66% of start volume, while Deloitte identified a potential office supply gap between 2027 and 2030.
The combination explains why the City can have strong rents, high occupier requirements and a substantial planning pipeline without every tower progressing at the same speed. Developers are bringing forward particular schemes where location, specification, capital and programme line up. Other permissions remain further back in the delivery sequence.
Which City projects have crossed into delivery?
The difference is visible when individual projects are compared by stage rather than by proposed height or development value.
| Project | Contractor / developer | Position at 1 November 2026 | Value / scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 75 London Wall | Multiplex / Gamuda and Castleforge | Under construction following completed enabling works | £295m contract value on Multiplex's current project page; 498,000 sq ft NIA |
| 55 Old Broad Street | Skanska / AshbyCapital | Main contract awarded; Skanska's contract announcement gives an October 2026 construction start | £282m main contract; about 270,000 sq ft offices |
| Thavies Inn House | McLaughlin & Harvey / Evans Randall Investors | Erith demolition under way; main construction programmed for Q4 2026 after pre-commencement | £70m main contract; 90,000 sq ft offices |
| 1 Silk Street | Lipton Rogers / LaSalle Investment Management | Planning approval granted 28 May 2026 | About 86,000 sq m of Grade A office space |
One detail has also moved since the 75 London Wall contract was announced. Multiplex described the agreement as worth more than £250m when it announced the signed contract on 7 January 2026. When LCM checked the contractor's live project record on 1 November 2026, it listed the contract value as £295m. The project is recorded as under construction with completion in 2028.
LCM previously reported the transition at 75 London Wall from enabling works into the main Multiplex programme. The current project record provides a more precise contract figure without changing the distinction between the project's £1.2bn reported GDV and Multiplex's construction contract.
Planning permission is still only one stage
1 Silk Street shows the other side of the pipeline. The City Corporation approved the part 16 and part 20-storey redevelopment on 28 May 2026, with approximately 86,000 sq m of Grade A offices alongside cultural, retail and community uses. That is a substantial planning decision, but it belongs at a different stage from an awarded main contract or a project already carrying out structural work.
LCM's London Planning Pipeline 2027-2030 applies the same distinction across the capital: permissions, demolition, contractor appointments and physical construction are recorded separately because they create different levels and timings of workload for the supply chain.
The same issue appeared in LCM's Q4 London construction review, where commercial office projects provided some of the strongest evidence of schemes moving towards physical delivery. Skanska's £282m 55 Old Broad Street contract and McLaughlin & Harvey's £70m Thavies Inn House contract sit much closer to construction workload than an office tower that has only reached planning approval.
City Plan adoption is the next formal step
City Plan 2040 has therefore cleared the examination stage that reopened during 2026, but it had not yet been formally adopted when LCM checked the City Corporation's published planning record on 1 November. The Corporation said after the September heritage decision that the final plan would progress through its internal committees before adoption by the end of 2026.
That decision will give the Square Mile its replacement development plan to 2040. For contractors and the supply chain, the more immediate evidence will continue to come project by project: signed contracts, demolition, piling, structural works and mobilisation on the sites that move beyond the skyline drawings.
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