Boris Johnson's response to our debate on the capital's tower blocks has been disappointing

A blueprint is needed to ensure that the future of London's skyline is properly controlled. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Boris Johnson is fond of saying that he presides over the greatest city in the world. He argues, correctly, that London is facing its most significant pressures of population and growth since the 19th century. He is pleased, too, about the international investment that it is attracting. The greatest city facing one of its greatest challenges should, therefore, have the greatest planning framework for dealing with it, the more so if there is the wealth to pay for the relatively tiny cost of such a thing.

Great planning does not mean either "most restrictive" or "most laissez-faire". It means creating the conditions for growth and change while maintaining a vision of the common good. It balances competing interests. It includes a grasp of the cumulative effect of individual decisions, which private developers will not have. It can protect long-term benefits against damage from short-term profit. It has the ability to spot problems before they become crises and find a way to address them. It can review alternative approaches to an issue, such as population growth, and promote the best ones. It has clarity and consistency, so everyone knows where they stand. It has the ability to review the results of its own decisions, and learn from them. It is informed by knowledge, not guesswork. It is the result of genuine and transparent public debate.

The mayor and his officers have so far responded patchily to the London Skyline debate, led by the Observer and the Architects' Journal and supported by leading figures in business, architecture, property and culture. Johnson has written a defensive and not wholly accurate article in the Evening Standard and members of his planning team have spoken at debates on the subject. Their argument is that the London skyline isnot out of control and that the city has a planning apparatus that is working perfectly well.

They were half right. There is indeed a planning apparatus of some complexity in London. There is the London Plan, which says things about tall buildings with which few could disagree – that they can have a role to play, but that they should be well designed and in the right place, and that their effect at ground level should be considered. There is guidance by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and English Heritage that says much the same thing, which is also close to what the London public seems to want, as sampled by a recent Ipsos MORI poll....Continue Reading

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