Astaire stressed: “We’re not talking about Shards in Westminster, we’re talking about appropriate buildings in appropriate places.”
But he added: “We have people who don’t like basements and people who don’t like building up, and the question I ask these people is that if you want to grow as a city which way do we go?”
Astaire said taller buildings might be “apt” on the corridor from Park Lane to Marble Arch. Paddington, Victoria and Tottenham Court Road could also see higher buildings.
Mike Hussey, chief of developer Almacantar, said: “It is encouraging that the council is edging away from its conservationist stance on tall buildings.”
