Glasgow City Council adopted its Tall Buildings Design Guide for Glasgow in June 2025, following initial consultation in summer 2024.
The purpose of the new guidance is to identify areas of the city where the Council will support the development of tall buildings - structures with a height in excess of 25 metres are automatically considered to be ‘tall buildings’ – as well as outlining expectations on build quality, design and aesthetics. It also includes guidance to encourage mixed use developments, such as the inclusion of street-level retail and leisure.
Going forward, the guidance will be a key factor in the determination of planning applications for relevant developments. Areas of the city which are considered to be suitable for more tall buildings, in principle, include Charing Cross, Anderston Quay, Trongate and Cowcaddens.
The support for developments of heights in excess of 25 metres (and, indeed, up to heights in excess of 75 metres for metropolitan scale development proposals – where the impact of a building is perceived on a city-wide scale) marks a significant shift from past decades where buildings have been capped well below what might be expected in a city of Glasgow’s size and growing international profile.
The landscape is literally changing, however, with consented schemes such as Candleriggs Square (mixed use – 59.5 metres); 109 West Nile Street (hotel – 57.9 metres); 22 Clyde Street (mixed use – 54.5 metres) and 8 Dixon Street (hotel – 57.2 metres) already under construction. Crucially Glasgow, sitting at the heart of the country’s only metropolitan region, offers scope for skyscraper developments unlike any of the other Scottish cities.
Issues relating to density have been identified previously as a barrier to growth and investment in the UK, and it's hoped that the policy supported in the new guidance for re-densification and repopulation of the city centre will go some way to addressing this. Proponents of the new guidance also point out that increases to density help to reduce urban sprawl and also provide a greater range of opportunities for refurbishment and re-use of existing buildings.
Of course, any proposal - regardless of its height – must also satisfy other relevant policies including those relating to heritage and townscape character, particularly for sites in or adjacent to the Glasgow Central Conservation Area. The usual technical standards including daylight/sunlight, overshadowing, wind microclimate and visual amenity must also be met on a site-by-site basis.
Overall, the new guidance represents a significant opportunity for growth and innovative design on account of the clear policy support for developments of greater scale and density in Glasgow city centre.
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