The tower is to be the tallest in the City of London, 1 lower shaft held the planning row

The decision to approve the skyscraper, which is to be the city’s tallest – towering over the ‘Walkie Talkie’ and ‘Cheese Grinder’ buildings and matching the height of the London Bridge wreckage – has been delayed by the Square Mile planning committee despite planners recommending it for approval.

Eric Parry designed 1 building below the shaft which would stand at 309.6m and provide 154,000m2. Flexible office space and an estimated 9,500 new jobs were expected to be given the go-ahead for construction at the world’s leading insurance hub City cluster after a lengthy eight-year planning process.

However, the City of London’s planning applications sub-committee voted to defer its decision on the grounds that the current proposal encroached too much on the adjacent communal area of ​​St Helens Square.

The motion that “minor alterations in relation to the public space of the ground floor” was passed by nine votes to six, with two abstentions.

Most of the objections raised during the commission were about the way her design would fit into the square where people gather for lunch, the commission heard.

The decision comes despite a report by planning officers released ahead of the committee meeting recommending approval of the 74-storey building. The sub-committee is expected to green-light 1 lower shaft after making adjustments.

The building’s developers, Aroland Holdings, are now expected to have to come back with a plan containing structural modifications to the building to ensure it takes up less square footage.

The decision comes after several big names came out in opposition to the state-of-the-art skyscraper in a last-ditch attempt to prevent it from going ahead.

This morning, the chairman of Lloyd’s of London – which is based in the iconic Richard Rogers-designed Lloyd’s building, which also sits in St Helen’s Square – Bruce Carnegie-Brown wrote to City of London officials that 1 Undershaft would “rob the city of a really important convening space”.

And CC Land, which is the main investor in the Cheesegrater building next door, has filed an objection.

The firm’s head of development Justin Black told the hearing: “We believe these plans are flawed, resulting in unnecessary damage to the urban environment in the public realm and setting up heritage assets.”

A spokesman for Aroland Holdings said: “We listened carefully to the comments made at the planning sub-committee today regarding the ground floor public space.

“We will be working closely with the City of London Corporation and our neighbors in the insurance industry to consider this through minor revisions to the scheme.

“We look forward to returning to the subcommittee as soon as possible.