The Conservative MP for Newark and housing secretary Robert Jenrick is facing fresh questions after it emerged he intervened again in a development involving Tory donors.
Mr Jenrick was already facing criticism over his intervention in a £1 billion housing development in London, when he approved a controversial development one day before the developer would have had to pay between £30 and £50 million for local infrastructure.
It later became clear Mr Jenrick had sat next to the developer - former Daily Express owner Richard Desmond - at a Conservative Party fundraising dinner weeks before, and was aware that by intervening when he did he was saving the developer money.
Now, it is understood Mr Jenrick has also intervened with a development at Sandown Park racecourse, in Surrey, put forward by horse-racing organisation the Jockey Club.
Board members of the Jockey Club include Baroness Dido Harding, a Conservative life peer in charge of the Government’s COVID-19 tracing app, and several other Conservative Party donors.
The Sandown application involved building a 150 bedroom hotel and 318 new homes.
After 840 local objections were received, the plans were rejected by the local Elmbridge Borough Council, partly on the grounds that it was an ‘inappropriate development in the green belt’, and that one in five of the houses would have been ‘affordable’, compared to the council’s target of between 40 and 50 percent.
The council, which is run by a coalition of residents’ association councillors and Liberal Democrats, also said a lack of commitments from the developers to fund biodiversity and connections to the nearby railway station would have an adverse effect on the area.
For its part, the Jockey Club says it believes the development has ‘considerable merit’, and offers ‘social and economic benefits’.
Once the application was rejected by the council, the Jockey Club lodged an appeal.
Normally, this would then be decided by the Government’s independent Planning Inspectorate.
However in this instance it is understood Mr Jenrick has intervened so that he will personally make the decision himself.
The planning inspector will produce a report with recommendations, which will then be decided on by Mr Jenrick.
A spokeswoman for Elmbridge Borough Council said: “As the Jockey Club’s appeal for development at Sandown Racecourse is underway, we have no further comment to make”.
A spokesman for Jockey Club Racecourses said: “We believe that our application has considerable merit and offers local social and economic benefits, as evidenced by the original recommendation for approval given by Elmbridge Council planning officers.
“We trust that whoever determines the appeal will do so based on planning considerations only.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Each planning appeal is taken on its own merits and, as the letter states, the reason for this appeal being recovered is because it relates to proposals for significant development within the green belt.
“A planning inspector will prepare a report which will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State on how to determine the case.”
