Robert Jenrick: Case not 'closed' over minister's approval of controversial development, MPs warn

Pressure on the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, has increased after the Commons Housing Committee wrote to tell him that it did not regard the Westferry case as “closed” and demanded answers to a further 26 questions about his involvement.

Mr Jenrick has come under intense scrutiny over his links with billionaire Tory donor Richard Desmond, after he overruled the local council and planning inspector to give approval for a £1bn housing development in east London.

Copies of his correspondence with Mr Desmond released to the committee last week showed civil servants reporting that the cabinet minister was “insistent” that the decision should be completed before the introduction of a new council levy that could have cost the developer more than £40m.

Despite Mr Jenrick later quashing his own decision after accepting it was unlawful, Boris Johnson has made clear that he regards the case as “closed”.

But in a letter to the minister, the committee’s chair, Clive Betts, said: “I am not accusing you, or any official in the ministry, of deliberate wrongdoing.

“However, the documents do clearly demonstrate that serious mistakes were made during this process, and that these put into doubt your ability to act as a neutral arbiter in this case and created a strong perception of bias. You have accepted that your decision was unlawful on that basis.

“The committee respectfully disagrees with the prime minister’s assertion that ‘the matter is closed’ and believes there are important lessons that must be learned.

“It is important for the committee to scrutinise where it feels that greater transparency is needed within the planning system and to ensure confidence in the fairness of future planning decisions.”

Mr Betts said the committee regarded it as an “obvious conflict of interest” that Mr Jenrick sat at the same table as Mr Desmond, his associates and representatives of Westferry construction firm Mace at a Conservative fundraising dinner in November.

He demanded to know whether the minister had followed guidance requiring him to tell anyone seeking to lobby him on a planning application to speak instead to officials.

He asked whether a full note of the meeting existed, why Mr Jenrick did not report it to his department for four weeks and why he had followed up with further contacts with the former newspaper publisher.

Mr Betts requested full details of all contacts, including phone calls with Mr Desmond, and demanded to know why they were not listed in the decision letter issued by Mr Jenrick in January, when other representations were made public.

He also demanded a full explanation for the decision to approve the project, despite it contravening Tower Hamlets Council’s local development plan and having fewer affordable homes than required for a project of its size.

And he called on Mr Jenrick to reveal whether Mr Johnson or anyone else from 10 Downing Street ever discussed the project with him.

The committee gave the housing secretary until 6 July to answer its questions and made clear that it expected him to appear in person on 13 July to give evidence on the Westferry case.

Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk