Robert Jenrick Faces Calls To Resign After 'Unlawfully' Approving Tory Donor's £1bn Housing Project
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick is facing calls to resign after he admitted “unlawfully” signing off a 1,500-home development that saved a Tory Party donor millions of pounds.
The £1bn project on the former Westferry Printworks site on London’s Isle of Dogs was approved in January by Jenrick – a last-minute reprieve after the council and then the independent Planning Inspectorate both deciding it should be refused. They had said it lacked enough affordable housing and conflicted with local conservation policy.
But the housing secretary’s decision came just a day before Tower Hamlets Council approved a new rate for its Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – a move that would have increased the property owner’s financial liability to the local authority by between £30m and £50m.
That money would have been spent mitigating the impact of the development on the local area, and improving local services. Instead, thanks to Jenrick’s timing, it stayed in the pocket of the developer.
Now Boris Johnson is under pressure to reveal what knowledge, if any, he had of the deal.
The building used to be the Daily Express printworks on the Millwall waterfront. The land is owned by Northern & Shell, which is in turn owned by publishing magnate and former Tory donor Richard Desmond.
Jenrick, who faced criticism for his approach to social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak, has been labelled “unfit to continue to serve” after denying vital investment in east London where affordable housing is scarce.
The Labour Party has also written to the cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill calling for an investigation into the matter.
Apsana Begum, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse – the constituency that includes the printworks – told HuffPost UK: “We have one of the highest rates of child poverty in the entire country and struggle with the near-impossible situation of having soaring monthly rents, which all too often mean people, particularly those on low incomes,...
