Housing secretary fast-tracked decision to help developer avoid 拢50m charge

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has said his decision to speed up his approval of the controversial Westferry Printworks scheme to help the developer avoid paying a 拢50m charge was 鈥減erfectly fair鈥�.

Text messages and documents released last month show the minister asked officials to fast-track the application for the 拢1bn scheme to help Richard Desmond, the owner of the scheme鈥檚 developer Northern & Shell, to avoid the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) which was introduced by Tower Hamlets council in January.

PLP's Westferry Printworks proposals, seen from the south

Scheme architect PLP has been asked to work up detailed designs on the job

But questioned by the housing select committee about the process which led to his decision to approve the 1,500 home scheme, Jenrick today said: 鈥淚 think it was a perfectly fair decision to try and get this done one way or another before the CIL charge came in.鈥�

He added: 鈥淚t is a material and legitimate decision to try if one can to make a decision before a material change in circumstance might occur.鈥�

Officials advised Jenrick on the timing of the CIL charge on his first day back in the office after the 2019 general election, weeks after the minister was shown a video of the scheme by Desmond at a Tory party fundraising dinner in November.

Desmond subsequently texted Jenrick asking him to speed up his decision 鈥渁s we don鈥檛 want to give Marxists a load of doe [sic] for nothing!鈥�.

Asked if it would have been helpful to include reference to the fundraising dinner and the text messages in the final decision letter, Jenrick said: 鈥淚鈥檓 not sure about that, because these are not meetings.

鈥淚f a minister has meetings they are disclosed through the official channels.鈥�

He added: 鈥淚f we have a formal meeting then we have a read out from that and that might be something that might be disclosed but that wasn鈥檛 the case here.鈥�

Jenrick went on to speculate that the reason the scheme, which first came before Tower Hamlets council in 2018, had been delayed, was that councillors 鈥渄idn鈥檛 like the applicant or application鈥�.

He said: 鈥淎 fair minded person would read into this situation that Tower Hamlets council chose to sit on the application rather than decide it because they didn鈥檛 like the application or because they didn鈥檛 like the applicant.鈥�

He also hinted that CILs could be reformed in upcoming planning reforms announced by MHCLG earlier this week.

Asked whether CIL charges should be applied at the point of application and not the decision, Jenrick said it was 鈥渁n interesting question鈥�.

The government鈥檚 planning reforms are due to go to consultation shortly and Jenrick said the developer contribution system would be part of that conversation.

He added: 鈥淲hat I would like to see is a system which is more certain for all parties, both the applicant and the council and one which does deliver a fair contribution towards the social infrastructure of local communities.鈥�

The Westferry scheme鈥檚 architect PLP has been asked to work up detailed designs the job.

Northern & Shell said in its annual accounts this month it was confident the 1,500-home scheme would finally win approval before the end of the year.

Mace is project manager on the job.

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