London Metropolitan Police's Special Enquiry Team asses controversial £1bn Tower Hamlets planning application signed off by Newark MP Robert Jenrick in role as Housing Secretary
London Metropolitan Police are assessing a controversial planning application signed off by Newark MP Robert Jenrick in his role as Communities and Housing Secretary.
Officers from the force's Special Enquiry Team are assessing the details of an allegation made last week, a police spokesman confirmed.
The government has accepted his approval of a £1bn east London housing development was technically unlawful, but Mr Jenrick denied any actual bias.
According to reports, Mr Jenrick gave permission for 1,500 homes on the Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets, on January 14 — the day before community charges placed on developments were increased, which meant the developer, Tory party donor Richard Desmond, avoided paying around £40m.
A planning inspector had advised against the scheme.
Mr Jenrick was questioned about the decision at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing, which he led on Sunday.
He said: "We want to build more homes in this country. We have a housing crisis and we need to get the country building — that's absolutely at the heart of the mission of this government and I think when we come out of this pandemic it will be even more true.
"We want to see decent affordable homes in all parts of the country and that's what I want to do as Housing Secretary.
"In response to the planning application that you refer to that was judged on the merits and would have allowed hundreds of affordable houses to be provided in one of London's most deprived boroughs.
"There was no bias in that decision but to ensure complete fairness and no inference of that whatsoever, we offered to redetermine that decision in the usual way and others parties agreed to do that so I think that was the right way to move forward."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, said: “While we reject the suggestion that there was any actual bias in the decision, we have agreed that the application will be redetermined."
