‘I worry for those who advocate for too much restraint’… The City’s new planning committee chair on the future of the Square Mile

By Tom Lowe2025-06-17T06:00:00

Building sits down with Tom Sleigh for his first media interview after his appointment to one of the UK’s most high-profile planning roles

Tom Sleigh has a bombshell to deliver. Weighing his words carefully, the newly appointed chair of the City of London’s planning committee declares: “I think the time of sky gardens is probably passing.”

It is a statement which might have been met with horror recently by most attendees at the UKREiiF conference, where Sleigh sat down to talk to Building. Sky gardens have, in recent years, been a go-to cultural element in big City schemes, employed by project teams to gain the favour of the City’s planning committee. But Sleigh believes they do not provide any real benefit for office workers, the main users of these buildings. “Real gardens are back,” he claims.

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