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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
National
Patrick Daly & Ben Reid

Robert Jenrick MP facing questions over role in approving 1,500-home development worth £1billion

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is set to face a grilling over his role in approving a development of 1,500 homes that was said to be worth £1 billion.

The Westferry Printworks redevelopment scheme in east London was approved controversially in January by Mr Jenrick against the recommendation of a planning inspector.

The decision has since been reversed after legal action by Tower Hamlets Council, which had voiced concerns over the size of the development when the plans were first submitted in 2018.

In a statement in May, the local authority said the "timing of the decision appeared to show bias" by the Cabinet minister as it was made a day before new infrastructure charges came into force.

It allowed the developer - former Daily Express owner Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell firm - to avoid paying between £30 to £50 million extra to the council.

Labour has accused Mr Jenrick, the MP for Newark, of making the decision after he dined with Mr Desmond "at a glitzy fundraising dinner".

Two weeks after the Cabinet minister stepped in to approve the housing scheme, Electoral Commission records show that Mr Desmond personally gave £12,000 to the Conservatives.

The former Channel 5 owner has donated to both the Tories and Ukip in the past.

Labour, in the run-up to Mr Jenrick's appearance in the House of Commons for housing and communities questions, has called for the Government to release papers related to the decision to approve the controversial development.

Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick MP (Nottingham Post / Picture It)

Shadow housing secretary Steve Reed will ask Mr Jenrick in the Commons to "publish all documents and correspondence relating to this decision" so the public can see why he gave it the all-clear "despite the objections of the local council and the independent planning inspector appointed by his own department".

The frontbench MP is also expected to ask the former Treasury minister whether he declared his dinner conversation with Mr Desmond to the permanent secretary, the most senior civil servant at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and why he "did not recuse himself from decision making in this case given his relationship with the developer".

The party will also be demanding more information about the level of contact his department had with the developer over the application and specifically about the tens of millions of pounds that it would have been "liable for after January 14 if he hadn't intervened".

Mr Reed said: "Communities must have confidence that the planning process is fair and transparent, but the unanswered questions around Robert Jenrick's unlawful decision have weakened that trust.

"It is unprecedented for a Secretary of State to admit to bias - and there are fears he did it to avoid being forced to reveal the truth behind his decision in open court.

"It's time for Mr Jenrick to come clean and answer these crucial questions about why he overruled his own inspector to grant planning permission for a billionaire Conservative Party donor to build a luxury development and dodge a £50 million tax bill shortly after they dined together at a glitzy fundraising dinner - Mr Jenrick must prove it's not one rule for the Conservatives and their wealthy donors but another rule for everyone else."

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