Housing secretary James Brokenshire has decreed that a 327-home west London tower designed by Studio Egret West should be denied planning permission – against the advice of a planning inspector.

Hounslow council refused planning permission for the 32- and 25-storey mixed-use development in Chiswick in 2017, which was a rejigged version of proposals originally submitted in 2015. But developer Starbones, a subsidiary of Galliard Homes, appealed and a public inquiry overseen by planning inspector Paul Griffiths was held last summer.

In a just-published 172-page report to Brokenshire, Griffiths called on the secretary of state to approve the scheme, known as the Chiswick Curve, concluding that it would “mark the country’s commitment to quality and sensitivity which will act as a badge to our commitment to the best of the new”.

…