The housing, communities and local government committee has written to housing secretary Robert Jenrick to say that it disagrees that the Westferry Printworks development issue is closed.
The Printworks development has been in focus for some time now following the news that surfaced in late May regarding the housing secretary’s decision to approve of a £1bn housing project on London’s Isle of Dogs, headed by businessman Richard Desmond.
Doing so allowed Desmond to save £40m through avoiding revised council infrastructure charges, which came into effect one day after the decision was made.
Over a third of the British public would like to see the housing secretary step down from his position as a result of these revelations.
The letter follows Jenrick’s own letter to the committee alongside 129 pages of supplementary documentation, sent last week.
The HCLG committee chair, Clive Betts, writes that, “I am not accusing you, or any official in the ministry, of deliberate wrongdoing. However, the documents do clearly demonstrate that serious mistakes were made during the process, and that these put into doubt your ability to act as a neutral arbiter in this case and created a strong perception of bias. You have accepted that your decision was unlawful on that basis.”
The letter goes on to say that, “the committee respectfully disagrees with the prime minister’s assertion that ‘the matter is closed’ and believes that there are important lessons that must be learned.”
It adds: “While the committee would customarily not scrutinise individual cases and instead take a wider view of policy making, “given the particular high profile of this case and the opportunity to learn wider lessons, we feel it is important to make an exception and consider the rigour of the process without becoming the arbiter of the decision itself.”
Betts then asks 26 questions pertaining to the original meeting with Desmond – which happened during a political event – the timing of the decision relative to the community infrastructure levy and the making of the decision against the inspector’s report.
Jenrick has been asked to provide answers to each question by 6 July. The committee also reminds the housing secretary that he has been invited to give public evidence on 13 July.
