JP Morgan Chase has reached agreement with London City airport to build one of Europe’s tallest office towers in the east of the capital.
The £3bn tower is poised to be the tallest in the Canary Wharf financial district after JP Morgan, one of Wall Street’s biggest banks, secured approval from the airport.
JP Morgan revealed plans last November to build the Canary Wharf tower, which will serve as its new UK headquarters. The lender has since been in talks with airport officials over building height restrictions, given Canary Wharf’s location four miles west of City airport.
Any new developments and planning applications within 10km (6 miles) of the airport are considered to be within its “area of interest”, meaning its safeguarding officials need to be consulted to ensure new buildings in Docklands do not interfere with aircraft movements.
The two sides have agreed that the planned tower could be 265 metres tall, as first reported by the Financial Times. This means the new building would stand about 30 metres taller than One Canada Square, currently the tallest building in Canary Wharf and home to companies including Bank of NY Mellon and Spain’s BBVA across its 50 floors.
JP Morgan’s new London HQ is expected to span 279,000 sq metres (3 million sq ft) and will house more than half of its 23,000 UK staff.
Following the conclusion of talks with City airport, the Guardian understands that the bank is finalising the tower designs and will soon apply for planning permission.
JP Morgan Chase and London City airport declined to comment.
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, disclosed the tower plans last November, hours after banks avoided a tax raid in the chancellor’s budget.
Questions are now being raised about the financial inducements the company has sought from the UK government to build the skyscraper. JP Morgan has requested a discount on its business rates, according to documents produced by Tower Hamlets council, despite having made a net income of $57bn (£43bn) in 2025.
The Treasury has proposed a discount on rates of “up to 100%” over “a period of years”, which could represent a saving of hundreds of millions of pounds. The site would generate up to £1.6bn in rates over 25 years if there were to be no discount, meaning the bank would be “unlikely to progress” the project “without clarity and certainty” over its rates bill, according to the documents.
One assessment of the tower construction has calculated that the project would add almost £10bn to the UK economy over six years and create about 7,800 construction-related jobs.
