MINISTER: I KNEW I WAS SAVING TYCOON MILLIONS
Housing Secretary admits that giving green light to £1bn property development helped Tory donor
A minister admitted last night he knew he was saving a tory donor tens of millions of pounds in approving a £1billion property scheme.
Robert Jenrick faces claims of ‘cash for favours’ over his dealings with former newspaper tycoon Richard Desmond.
He over-ruled the local council and a planning inspector a day before the introduction of a community levy that would have cost the billionaire between £30million and £50million. Just two weeks later Mr Desmond gave £12,000 to the Conservative Party.
Mr Jenrick had to quash his decision to give the plan the green light following a High Court challenge from Tower Hamlets council.
Yesterday he insisted ‘all the rules were followed’ over the 1,500-home development in east London. But
he told MPs he knew that the timing of his decision would save the businessman a fortune.
Steve Reed, Labour’s housing spokesman, urged Mr Jenrick to make a full Commons statement, publish all correspondence and ‘disclose all conversations with all Government ministers and officials’.
In response, the Cabinet minister said information relating to the decision has now been passed to Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill.
‘I have taken, and will take again, advice from my permanent secretary about what further documentation we might be able to publish,’ he told MPs.
Mr Jenrick said he took the planning decision ‘in good faith with an open mind’ and insisted it was commonplace for a Housing Secretary to overrule local councils and the Planning Inspectorate.
Mr Jenrick’s decision in January came two months after he and Mr Desmond sat on the same table at a Tory fundraising dinner.
The property developer, who previously owned the Daily Express and Daily Star newspapers, then went on to donate £12,000 to the Conservatives on January 28.
Asked yesterday why did not withdraw from deciding on the planning application following the dinner, Mr Jenrick said he had made Housing Department officials aware of it. He said: ‘My department knew about my attendance at the event before I went to it, they knew about the fact I had inadvertently sat next to the applicant.
‘I didn’t know who I was going to be seated by until I sat at the table, and I discussed and took advice from my officials within the department at all times.’
Labour MP Sarah Jones pressed Mr Jenrick on whether he knew that the levy would come into force the day after he signed planning consent.
He replied: ‘That was a matter of public record referred to in the Planning Inspectorate’s report that my department received in November so all parties would have been aware of that.’
The SNP’s Tommy Sheppard challenged Mr Jenrick over his ‘entirely unsatisfactory’ answers, adding: ‘ Will he now explain to this House... why he thinks it is appropriate for him to remain in post while the police investigation into his behaviour is ongoing?’
But the minister criticised the MP for making ‘factually incorrect’ points, adding: ‘I understand that a Labour member of the House of Lords did make an allegation to the police. That was swiftly assessed by members of the Metropolitan Police and they informed that there were no criminal matters to investigate.’
Mr Jenrick’s appearance in the Commons yesterday for his regular departmental questions came after he failed to turn up to respond to an urgent question on the matter last week and instead sent a junior housing minister.
The timing of Mr Jenrick’s planning decision meant Mr Desmond would have avoided paying the levy, depriving one of the country’s poorest boroughs of funds.
Money collected through the levy can be used by council to fund a wide range of infrastructure, including transport, flood defences, schools, hospitals, and other health and social care facilities. According
to legal documents filed as part of the High Court challenge by Tower Hamlets, the council was informed by the Planning Inspectorate last November that Mr Jenrick would issue his decision ‘on or before February 20’.
But it was unexpectedly published on January 14, a day before the council was due to approve the new levy. After the High Court challenge, Mr Jenrick accepted his original decision had been ‘unlawful by reason of apparent bias’ and said he would take no further part in the matter.
Mr Jenrick has faced controversy in recent months after he travelled 150 miles from London to a property he owns in rural Herefordshire during the coronavirus lockdown.