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‘Perfectly fair’ to fast-track Westferry planning decision ahead of CIL change, argues Jenrick
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has argued that it was “perfectly fair” to push through planning approval for the controversial Westferry Printworks scheme before council changes, which would have cost the project developer around £40m, were introduced.
Speaking at a hearing of the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee today, Mr Jenrick said that changes to the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) due to be introduced by Tower Hamlets Council were “a material consideration that a planning minister could take into account”.
Mr Jenrick has been heavily criticised for his decision to approve the controversial 1,500-home development on the Isle of Dogs against the planning inspector’s recommendation, not least because the decision was made one day before Tower Hamlets Council was set to amend its CIL policy.
Correspondence released by the government last month revealed that Mr Jenrick had exchanged a number of texts with project developer Richard Desmond, including one from the latter that read: “We appreciate the speed as we don’t want to give Marxists loads of doe [sic] for nothing!”
Mr Desmond made a £12,000 donation to the Conservative party two weeks after the minister’s decision, which was overturned by the High Court in May on grounds of “apparent bias”.
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An email between civil servants, also released by the government, said: “On timing, my understanding is that SoS [secretary of state] is/was insistent that decision issues this week ie tomorrow – as next week the viability of the scheme is impacted by a change in the London CIL regime.”
The CIL is a charge which is placed on developers by local authorities in order to raise money for local infrastructure such as transport, schools and hospitals.
Commenting on the timing of the decision, Mr Jenrick told the select committee: “The inspector’s report also restated the point that the viability of the project might be compromised were the CIL to come in and obviously the developer in their submission to the planning inspectorate made that point as well.
“So I think it was a perfectly fair decision to see if we could, with a thorough decision-making process, make the decision one way or another in time to be communicated before that change in circumstances.”
Mr Jenrick criticised Tower Hamlets Council for its “failure” to make a decision on the Westferry development, which was first submitted to the local authority in 2018.
He said: “There are a small number of councils in this country who are failing to determine applications within the statutory period in breach of the law.
“I think that’s maladministration and I would strongly urge those councils to raise their game because it’s not fair, regardless of the application or the applicant, it is not fair to simply sit on applications.”
In a letter sent to the HCLG Committee prior to the hearing, Tower Hamlets Council said it is not unusual for schemes of this size and complexity to take longer than the statutory period at planning.
It said: “It is frustrating when there are delays in the planning process, but such delays are seldom for simple reasons and the LPA [local planning authority] are very rarely solely responsible for them.”
