Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick pushed through a decision to approve a Tory donor’s £1billion housing development to allow him to save tens of millions of pounds in tax, documents tonight appear to show.
The Housing Secretary tonight finally bowed to pressure to release correspondence over his role in the ‘cash for favours’ row involving Richard Desmond’s Westferry Printworks scheme in East London.
They show that Mr Jenrick was ‘insistent’ the former media mogul’s 1,500 luxury flat project in Docklands be approved within days – and before a new Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was introduced by the local council.
The minister is under fire for overruling the authority and a planning inspector to grant permission, two months after sitting next to the ex-Express owner Mr Desmond at a Tory fundraising dinner.
His decision came the day before the community levy was introduced that would have cost Mr Desmond up to £50million, according to Labour.
In a trache of 129 documents published tonight was a Thursday January 9 email between staff at the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in which an anonymous mandarin noted: ‘On timing, my understanding is that the SoS is/was insistent that decision was issued this week ie tomorrow (Friday) – as next week the viability of the scheme is impacted by a change in the London CIL regime.’
Another email from the following day added: ‘LB (London Borough of) Tower Hamlets is adopting a new local plan and CIL regime next week. The appellant (Mr Desmond) believes that the proposal would not be viable if it was liable to CIL charges.’
In a trache of 129 documents published tonight was a Thursday January 9 email in which an anonymous mandarin noted: ‘On timing, my understanding is that the SoS is/was insistent that decision was issued this week ie tomorrow (Friday) – as next week the viability of the scheme is impacted by a change in the London CIL regime.’
The Housing Secretary tonight finally bowed to pressure to release correspondence over his role in approving Richard Desmond’s Westferry Printworks scheme in East London.
Another email from the following day added: ‘LB (London Borough of) Tower Hamlets is adopting a new local plan and CIL regime next week. The appellant (Mr Desmond) believes that the proposal would not be viable if it was liable to CIL charges’
The mogul urged Mr Jenrick to approve a development scheme so that ‘Marxists’ did not get ‘doe for nothing’, texts between the two have revealed.
In a text to Mr Desmond on November 18 after spending time with him at an event, Mr Jenrick said: ‘Good to spend time with you tonight Richard. See you again soon I hope.’
Mr Desmond replied: ‘Thanks Robert I really appreciate your text Will call your office tomorrow to arrange Very best.’
In a text two days later regarding the development, Mr Desmond said: ‘We appreciate the speed as we don’t want to give Marxists loads of doe for nothing!
‘We all want to go with the scheme and the social housing we have proposed and spent a month at the Marxist town hall debating, thanks again, all my best Richard.’
Mr Jenrick replied: ‘As Secretary of State it is important not to give any appearance of being influenced by applicants of cases that I may have a role in or to have predetermined them and so I think it is best that we don’t meet until after the matter has been decided, one way of [sic] another – and I can’t provide any advice to you on that, other than to say that I will receive advice from my officials after the general election assuming I remain in office and will consider it carefully in accordance with the rules and guidance.
‘I hope that is okay and we can meet to discuss other matters soon, hopefully on the 19th. Robert.’
Mr Jenrick had earlier been forced into an embarrassing climbdown when he agreed to publish the papers.
He made the admission as Labour prepared to stage a parliamentary vote on its demand for he and his advisers to publish all correspondence on the matter.
Mr Jenrick also waived affordable housing rules, giving the billionaire businessman an estimated £106million in extra revenue. Two weeks later, Mr Desmond donated £12,000 to the Conservative Party.
The Housing Secretary has since had to quash his own approval, conceding the decision was ‘unlawful’.
In the Commons this afternoon, Mr Jenrick said further information would be released today, noting discussions and correspondence ‘which the Government would not normally release’ will be made public.
He accused Labour of making ‘wild accusations’ against him and claimed the documents would show a decision was taken with an ‘open mind’ on the merits of the case.
Mr Jenrick is embroiled in a ‘cash for favours’ row over his approval of Richard Desmond’s (pictured) plan for 1,500 homes in east London
Mr Jenrick also waived affordable housing rules, giving the billionaire businessman an estimated £106million in extra revenue. Two weeks later, Mr Desmond donated £12,000 to the Conservative Party.
‘I will write to the chair of the select committee outlining the timeline of events and the rationale for my decision-making pertaining to the Westferry Printworks planning decision,’ he said.
‘Alongside this letter, and after a comprehensive review of what documents might be in scope of this motion, and of the letter that he sent me on behalf of his select committee, I will be releasing later today all relevant information relating to this planning matter using the Freedom of Information Act as a benchmark.
‘I recognise that there are higher standards of transparency expected in the quasi-judicial planning process which is why I will also release discussions and correspondence which the Government would not normally release.
‘These documents show that contrary to the wild accusations and the baseless innuendo propagated by the honourable gentleman (Steve Reed) opposite, and restated today in a series of totally inaccurate statements and comments, this was a decision taken with an open mind on the merits of the case after a thorough decision-making process.’
Mr Jenrick had until now resisted calls to hand over correspondence relating to his decision. Tower Hamlets Council launched a High Court challenge in March and demanded he disclose the papers.
Instead, Mr Jenrick accepted that his approval had been ‘unlawful by reason of apparent bias’ and it was quashed. He agreed to take no further part in decisions about the application.
The housing, communities and local government Commons committee has also requested he publish the correspondence. Labour called for Mr Jenrick to ‘come clean’ by releasing the documents without delay. It will hold an opposition day debate on the matter this afternoon and will force a vote on a motion that would compel the publication of the papers.
Opening the debate today, shadow communities secretary Steve Reed probed further on a Tory Party fundraising dinner in November 2019 attended by both Mr Jenrick and Mr Desmond.
He noted: ‘I understand Mr Desmond’s lobbyists, a company called Thorncliffe, had been busy selling tickets to the event to people who wanted access to the Secretary of State.’
He added: ‘Ministers are not allowed to take planning decisions if they have been lobbied by the applicant and, under the ministerial code, ministers are required not to place themselves under an obligation by, for instance, helping to raise funds from a donor who stands to benefit from the decisions they make because it raises questions about cash for favours – which would be a serious abuse of power.’
He overruled the local council and a planning inspector to grant permission in January, two months after the minister sat next to the former newspaper tycoon at a Tory fundraising dinner
‘The Government’s moral authority hangs by a thread. If the Secretary of State has nothing to hide then he has nothing to fear from publishing these documents.’
Last night Mr Jenrick was facing questions over a second planning row, involving the Jockey Club.
He has called in an application for it to build 318 homes and a hotel at Sandown Park in Esher, Surrey.
The intervention has raised concerns about conflicts of interest because of the Jockey Club’s links to senior Conservative figures and donors.
Its board includes Tory peer Baroness Harding, who oversees the Government’s coronavirus test and trace programme,
Rose Paterson, wife of Tory MP Owen Paterson, and Peter Stanley, who last year donated £5,000 to Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s constituency office in Newmarket, where the Jockey Club is based.
Racehorse owner Tim Syder gave the Conservative Party £12,500 in November, shortly before he joined the Jockey Club board.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has insisted that ‘each planning appeal is taken on its own merits’.