Greater London Authority Bill

I shall be brief, but I have exactly the same strength of view as has been expressed by many on the Opposition Benches and by the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford). As my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) made it clear, the objection is to clause 31 as drafted. It gives a new power, which we have not had before, to allow an application made to the local planning authority to be the subject of a direction by the Mayor that he will be the planning authority—he will take that on. The criteria are defined in general terms in the Bill. One of the qualifications is that the application has to be"““an application of potential strategic importance.””" We are then meant to look at the secondary legislation, which is in draft, as the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich and others have mentioned, to see how that is defined. That is the thin end of a very dangerous wedge. I believe that many of us will have received a letter from the Mayor in advance of this debate. It is extremely disingenuous in certain respects, as hon. Members would expect. It states:"““Boroughs will still continue to determine over 99 per cent. of all applications.””" That may be true, but if anyone were to think that it refers to 99 per cent. of all their housing or of all the space taken up, it would not be true. We are talking about mansard roof extensions being in the same league as the redevelopments of the Heygate estate, the Aylesbury estate, the Greenwich riverside and the St. Helier estate in Sutton or as a development along the riverside in Richmond or Kingston. Page 7 of the letter contains an extraordinarily disingenuous prayer in aid:"““Contrary to some claims, there is considerable support for the planning changes. A recent Ipsos MORI poll showed that Londoners support the proposals for the Mayor to approve major planning applications. Sixty-four per cent. of those polled reported that they would support the Mayor’s involvement in applications for a new recycling plant to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites in London””." What that meant was that two thirds of people wanted less landfill and that they wanted to recycle. It was not about wanting the Mayor to have the power to do that. The letter continued:"““A huge 83 per cent. supported the Mayor’s target that 50 per cent. of all new homes should be affordable for people on low and moderate incomes.””" Well, there is a surprise. Of course people want a high target on affordable housing—I do for my constituency. I have always argued for a figure of 50 per cent. to apply in Southwark, as have my colleagues. As an aside, they were defeated during the previous administration, when we were the minority, by a Labour-Tory coalition that regrettably voted down a 50 per cent. proposal. I shall reinforce the argument as to why the current proposals are not only flawed, but wrong. They undermine democracy and will, if the Government sustain them, in all likelihood, be defeated when the Bill goes to the other place. I am sure that those proposals will not get through because they offer a power to the Mayor to grab the decisions on matters that are not of strategic importance to London. I want to give two examples in that regard. The first concerns a debate that is going on in my borough about whether, in a small development by Barratt Homes in Surrey docks, there should be a larger or smaller development. Barratt wanted a larger development, but the local authority said no. There was an appeal and the matter went to a public inquiry. The inspector said no, so it went to the Secretary of State, who said yes. Why has the Secretary of State said yes? Because that is the implication of what the Mayor wants; he wants that bit of Surrey docks to be designated as urban, not as suburban, even though it is woodland and is meant to be laid out in a suburban way. That is the reason why the Mayor is objecting to the unitary development plan. The development has no strategic importance for London. Southwark, which is doing well at meeting its housing targets and wants to do more, wishes to replace the big Heygate estate with new housing, including more social housing, and to replace the Aylesbury estate with a development involving at least as much social housing as at present, as well as other housing. There is, of course, a debate about how to achieve the amount of housing that we need in London. There should be a dialogue and agreement between the Mayor and the local authority, and the local authority must then be free to decide where to put the housing and how to do build it. It should be able to decide whether it wants a tall development, a big estate, or lots of little developments. Such decisions should be taken by local authorities, so it is not for the Mayor to say, ““You will have this great big development in the middle of your borough, whether or not you think it is appropriate.”” There will be a huge danger if a development becomes strategic just because it is regarded as being big—a development with more than 500 dwellings, to cite the hon. Member for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush (Mr. Slaughter). The two biggest developments in my borough are strategic for Southwark, but not for London. They are replacements for existing developments. They will involve more social housing, although sadly they cannot be made up of council housing in whole or part because the Government do not make such an option available. There is a great danger that if the Mayor and the Government—if they are in cahoots—suddenly decide to define something as strategic, that will determine the interpretation. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Susan Kramer) and the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich, I have a huge amount of riverside in my constituency all the way from the Oxo tower to Deptford creek. It would be absolutely possible for a Mayor to say that every single development on that river is strategic. Of course, there is a site of huge strategic importance by Tower bridge and City hall on Potters Fields—it is strategic because it involves a world heritage site—but that is not the same as a little site in which a development could be squeezed down in Rotherhithe, Surrey docks, or the Deptford borders. We are absolutely right to oppose these dangerous proposals. I am keen for the Liberal Democrat and Conservative amendments to be put to the vote. If they are defeated, I am as sure as anyone can be that this will not be the last that people will hear of the matter. I ask the Minister, in all seriousness, to back down. This is not local government, but a creep towards regional and central Government making decisions that should be taken by local councillors. Why will people stand for local elections and participate in the process if, at the end of the day, someone else takes the decisions?