Did smartphone video seal tycoon’s £1bn deal?
Minister signed off homes plan after watching promo footage on party backer’s mobile
HOUSING Secretary Robert Jenrick watched a promotional video for a £1billion housing development on the phone of a Tory donor just weeks before he gave it the go-ahead.
The revelation is the latest to hit the minister in the ‘cash-for-favours’ row over his approval of plans by Richard Desmond for the 1,500home scheme in east London.
Mr Jenrick overruled the local council and the Government’s planning inspectorate to give the green light in January, two months after he sat next to the former newspaper tycoon at a Conservative Party fundraising dinner.
The minister has insisted they did not discuss the application at The Savoy hotel event in November, telling the Commons last Monday: ‘I advised the applicant that I was not able to discuss it.’
But Mr Desmond has now given an account of the evening in which he said he showed Mr Jenrick the promotional film on his mobile.
The billionaire, who previously owned the Daily Express, said the minister watched the clip for ‘three or four minutes... so he got the gist’. Mr Desmond told The Sunday Times Mr Jenrick then told him: ‘I’m sorry, Richard. I can’t discuss it.’ Earlier this month, the Daily Mail told how Mr Desmond donated £12,000 to the Tories two weeks after Mr Jenrick approved the development. Then last week it emerged the minister had waived affordable housing rules, saving the developer an estimated £106million.
He also admitted he knew he was saving Mr Desmond a further £40million by approving planning permission the day before a new community levy was introduced by Tower Hamlets council.
Mr Desmond wants to redevelop the site of the former Westferry printworks on the Isle of Dogs. He was granted permission in 2016 to build 722 homes, but has since submitted plans to nearly double the size of the scheme.
The businessman told The Sunday Times he is planning to live in one of the luxury apartments with his wife Joy, saying: ‘All we want to do is build more homes in London in a first-class development.’
Tower Hamlets challenged the January planning approval in the
High Court in March, after which Mr Jenrick quashed his decision and accepted it had been ‘unlawful by reason of apparent bias’. He will play no further role in the process.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill is now reviewing documents relating to Mr Jenrick’s decision, as pressure mounts on him to launch a formal investigation.
Labour has called for Mr Jenrick, 38, who himself owns homes worth an estimated £6.2million, to publish all correspondence relating to the matter and will use a threehour opposition debate in the Commons on Wednesday to discuss the issue.