好色先生TV

Thirty minutes after launching a startlingly ambitious housing policy for London, Rory Stewart is talking in a sunlit French restaurant just around the corner from his South Kensington home. On the menu is lemon sole for 拢22 or lobster spaghetti for 拢28. But he is only drinking a flat white, a faux pas made worse by the flapping of a giant reflective disc being held aloft by 好色先生TV鈥檚 photographer. 

鈥淪cott,鈥� Stewart says, leaning over to an aide, 鈥渃ould you please order yourself some food, because I鈥檓 feeling guilty towards the restaurant. And apologise,鈥� he adds, flashing a smile at a passing waiter.

Unfailingly polite, Stewart seems an unlikely candidate to take a hacksaw to the capital鈥檚 planning policy. On this bright winter afternoon, a key media day for his London mayoral campaign, he seems almost as concerned with not distracting his fellow diners from their Chablis as he does setting out how he plans to fix London鈥檚 chronic housing shortage. 

It is clear that he very much intends to screw up the re-election bid of his chief rival, the current mayor Sadiq Khan

When a bag at a neighbouring table falls off a chair onto the floor, he gently picks it up and puts it back. 鈥淚鈥檓 afraid we鈥檙e screwing up the whole restaurant,鈥� he says. Yet with his targeted announcement, trending throughout the day on political twitter, that he wants to build 250,000 houses during his four-year term if he wins this year鈥檚 mayoral race, it is clear that he very much intends to screw up the re-election bid of his chief rival, the current mayor Sadiq Khan.

The Eton and Oxford-educated former MP has hired a crack team to run his campaign, Rory For London, who have already caught the media鈥檚 attention with 鈥淐ome Kip With Me,鈥� an offer to sleep over in the homes of willing Londoners on the promise that he will 鈥渂ring a sleeping bag and a box of chocolates鈥�. For a politician renowned for his eccentricities, this is textbook 鈥淩ory鈥�.

He arrives at the restaurant flanked by two of his aides. On his right is Lizzie Loudon, former Downing Street press secretary under Theresa May and former partner at Hanbury Strategy, a conservative lobbying firm set up by David Cameron. On Stewart鈥檚 left is Scott Liddle, former assistant director at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whose most recent gig was running the Afghan operation of Turquoise Mountain Foundation, the charity set up by Stewart in 2006 that works on large-scale restoration projects in the Middle East. Stewart himself is wearing a dark suit over a flare-collared jumper which, combined with a pronounced strut as he approaches, makes him look weirdly 鈥� if momentarily 鈥� like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. 

The team has identified housing as one of Khan鈥檚 weak spots. 好色先生TV began on just over 9,000 private homes in the capital in the first half of 2019, the lowest number since the tail-end of the global recession in 2012. Private housing accounts for three-quarters of all housing in London, and despite Khan鈥檚 pledge to build 17,000 affordable homes this year, the numbers are still pitifully far off what is needed. City Hall鈥檚 own London Plan, published in 2017, set a target for 65,000 homes to be built each year, 50% of which should be affordable. 鈥淭he mayor has utterly failed to build the homes we need, and that he vowed to deliver. We need less politics, more action,鈥� Stewart says.

So how has Khan fallen so far behind? Stewart blames an over-reliance on the private sector: 鈥淭he only way that you鈥檙e going to be able to build large numbers of public affordable homes is if the government takes the lead in this and uses public sector land, because the model of relying on private developers to do it just is not delivering.鈥� 

The answer, says Stewart, is to use the 5,500 acres of brownfield sites the mayor owns through Transport for London to save money which would otherwise be wasted on buying London鈥檚 prohibitively expensive land. 鈥淵ou do that and you immediately reduce the cost by about 30% and that opens up these sites in ways that you can鈥檛 believe because suddenly you can be much more flexible.鈥�

 He goes further: 鈥淭he advantage that the mayor has is he can do things that private developers can鈥檛 do. Control over planning. Control over compulsory purchase. The mayor benefits from the regeneration of a whole area in a way that a private developer doesn鈥檛, in terms of council rates, business rates, benefits if more employment is generated.鈥� 

A 鈥渦se it or lose it policy鈥� to reclaim unused land by limiting the amount of time that developers have to start building on a site

The vehicle for his new housing policy 鈥� which steals a trick from the Dominic Cummings playbook with the catchy three-word title Just Build It! 鈥� is something called The Mayor鈥檚 好色先生TV Company, a City Hall-driven initiative to deliver what the Rory For London campaign calls 鈥渢he largest public house-building drive in London for more than a generation鈥�. 

It will enforce a 鈥渦se it or lose it policy鈥� to reclaim unused land by limiting the amount of time that developers have to start building on a site, along with a review into the 200,000 stalled units which are lying dormant despite having planning permission. Ominously, Stewart claims to have already identified these sites and pledges to personally meet the developers of the most important 20. 

Most intriguingly, Stewart says the style of housing that he will build will be overseen by a 鈥渄esign committee鈥�. It is an idea adopted in Sydney but yet to be seen in London, though something like it was implied in the government鈥檚 recent 好色先生TV Better 好色先生TV Beautiful report, which recommended legally embedding 鈥渂eautiful placemaking鈥� into the National Planning Policy Framework, the government鈥檚 official planning guidance. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a very good series of proposals,鈥� says Stewart, who was 鈥渧ery close鈥� to the report鈥檚 late chair, Sir Roger Scruton. 

鈥淲hat developers need, builders need, anybody needs is certainty. So setting very clear design guidelines, if they鈥檙e held firmly, makes things quicker not slower,鈥� he adds.

What you don鈥檛 want is tall buildings popping up like mushrooms out of low-rise settings

Rory Stewart

Out of all of the report鈥檚 recommendations, he would prioritise the idea of 鈥済entle density鈥�. He points out of the window down Sloane Avenue: 鈥淭his is a classic example, some of the densest bits of London being developed with gentle density, Georgian terraces here, seven, eight, nine-storey Edwardian mansion blocks down there, some of the very densest building in London, and it鈥檚 beautiful, and people want to live here.鈥�

So what exactly does Stewart regard as beauty? One of the most contentious aspects of Scruton鈥檚 recommendations, especially among architects, was an insistence on 鈥渙bjective鈥� beauty. For Stewart, it certainly does not include brutalism, which he admits he is 鈥減retty sceptical鈥� about and describes many examples as 鈥渉orrifying鈥�. 

Tall buildings are also viewed with suspicion: 鈥淚 think there are sites where you can put tall buildings, but you have got to mask them. What you don鈥檛 want is tall buildings popping up like mushrooms out of low-rise settings.鈥� 

On PLP鈥檚 278m monolithic 22 Bishopsgate he refused to comment, but one project that he would 鈥渄efinitely not鈥� have approved is the ongoing redevelopment of Nine Elms, which he says is 鈥減oorly designed, poor public space, poor facilities, and is one of the worst developments in London that we鈥檝e seen in the last 40 years鈥�. When it comes to the Tulip, Foster + Partners鈥� proposed 305m observation tower in the heart of the City, he says he is 鈥渧ery concerned鈥� 鈥� a rare point of agreement with Khan.

Stewart says his favourite recent development in the capital is King鈥檚 Cross, but in a perfect world, his preference would be for the courtyard dwellings of Murad Khani, the old town of Kabul. 鈥淭hose buildings are probably amongst my favourite buildings in the world. Flexible, timber construction, mud brick, beautifully carved, and great outdoor space,鈥� he says, though he admits: 鈥淐limatically that works better in Kabul than it does in London.鈥� Stewart鈥檚 organisation Turquoise Mountain, now run by his wife, Shoshana, restored 165 buildings in the historic district, which was nearly destroyed during the 12-year Afghan civil war and left buried underneath nearly two metres of accumulated rubbish. 

Getting the communities involved in the process of design at a much earlier stage, not thinking this is a building that鈥檚 dropped from 10,000 feet

Rory Stewart

鈥淢y own architects were literally under those buildings, digging,鈥� he says, 鈥淲e put in the water supply, we put in the electricity, the sanitation, built the primary school, built the clinic. I know how this is done, because we did it.鈥� 

What London needs now is 鈥渁 mayor and a team with a sense of detail and grip鈥�. Good developments, he says, 鈥渉ave a sense of building public space, of building a neighbourhood, of working with communities, getting the communities involved in the process of design at a much earlier stage, not thinking this is a building that鈥檚 dropped from 10,000 feet鈥�.

Perhaps a dislike of all things artificial is why Stewart is such a lover of trees. 鈥淭rees are the one bit of our built environment which change and grow, change over the seasons, change over time,鈥� he says, adding: 鈥淭hings like Regent Street and Haymarket are a total disgrace 鈥� enormous pavements and no trees.鈥� During his bid to become prime minister in last year鈥檚 Conservative leadership election, he promised to plant 100 million trees. The current London mayor promised to plant 2 million during his first term. 鈥淗e has barely made 400,000,鈥� Stewart says witheringly, 鈥渉e has totally failed.鈥� 

Stewart is a lover of all trees, but when pressed on a particular species, he says the London plane. 鈥淥ne of the very sad things is that we鈥檙e cutting them down. We鈥檙e going to change a lot of the character of London if we don鈥檛 replace them. If you cut down a London plane you should put back up a London plane.鈥� One particular tree is special to him: an evergreen holm oak in a South Kensington garden square, where he likes to sit with his five-year old son, Alexander. 

As he leaves the restaurant, he walks past a black, glitter-encrusted Lamborghini, a reminder of the eye-wateringly elite district he has lived in his whole life, and which has only ever elected Conservative MPs. What is striking about his mayoral campaign is that few of his policies are particularly right wing or even 鈥渟mall c鈥� conservative, a sign, perhaps, of a political operator unshackled from his former party鈥檚 traditional small government brand. 

Unceremoniously hoofed out of the party along with 20 other MPs when he rebelled last September against the government whip to vote to block leaving the EU without a deal, the former member for Penrith and the Border is now free to unfurl his apparently newly grown centre-left wings to embrace a city historically predisposed to Labour candidates. A savvy move, and a necessary one, because Stewart undoubtedly has a challenge on his hands. 

Stewart has come out all guns blazing with his own unique and personal brand

Incumbent Khan is hoovering up the lion鈥檚 share of the capital鈥檚 Corbynite vote, while Stewart faces being squeezed on the right by his former compatriot, the Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey. Neither is there much room for manoeuvre elsewhere, with the Liberal Democrat Siobhan Benita, the Green Party鈥檚 Sian Berry and independent Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers, all fighting spirited campaigns, not to mention the masked rapper Drillminister. 

With stiff competition left, right and centre, Stewart has come out all guns blazing with his own unique and personal brand. It seems he has already had an impact on the incumbent, with a nervous looking Khan accusing Stewart of being 鈥済immicky鈥� during a recent LBC interview 鈥� footage retweeted by Stewart and described as 鈥渕esmerising鈥�. 

Whether Stewart鈥檚 campaign will get traction in this fiercely competitive race remains to be seen. His challenge is to persuade voters that his years spent outside of South Kensington are really enough to provide him with the skills needed to fix London鈥檚 problems.