Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, it is not possible to speak to the amendments without referring to the draft order, which has been circulated. I thank the Minister. It is quite clear that a considerable amount of time, energy and effort has gone into revising the order. I would be grateful if she could answer some questions that are more on the order than the Bill, but it is important to get some points clear at this stage. At the start of consideration of the original draft order, I asked whether the Mayor had to act reasonably in considering whether an application was of potential strategic importance. The new version of the order is much more objective and it removes much of the concern about what might have been a subjective assessment of the criteria. In a letter to me, the Minister, in referring to paragraph 8 of the draft order, said that there must be ““sound planning reasons”” for issuing a direction. I assume that the Mayor has to be reasonable in Wednesbury terms in considering whether there are those reasons. It would be helpful if she would put on record what that term means and, in so doing, perhaps she can answer how the reasons would differ in particular from significant implementation of the London Plan, given that, as I understand it, the London Plan will form the context for the Mayor's decision. Secondly, can she explain what is meant by ““significant”” in, "““significant effects that go wider than a single borough””?" Privately, the Minister gave me some examples which I have used when talking to others and it would be right to get those examples on record. There has been understandable concern that the Mayor might trample on the boroughs and take over decisions that are properly for the boroughs to take. There is a practical as well as a statutory constraint. That is, as the noble Baroness said, that the Mayor’s powers cannot be delegated—and we will come to the procedures under the next group of amendments. That is significant. The policy issue is the hierarchy of policies and plans. We have the London Plan—the local plan—with government policy overriding everything. I use the term ““plan”” although I know that it is not the correct one. We also have the issue of housing targets, which I believe are a matter of agreement between the boroughs and the Mayor. Will the Minister confirm the status of housing targets and how they come about? Reference was previously made during the passage of the Bill to the enormous importance of housing, or the lack of it, particularly affordable housing. We on these Benches support the measures to address that. One particular problem is not just in numbers but in the size of affordable units provided as a result of the policies that require certain percentages to be affordable. There is a lack of units of adequate size, of three and particularly four bedrooms. Can the Minister comment on that and how it might be addressed through what is proposed? There is also the issue of density, which is not a matter for agreement in the same way as targets. There is a range of densities that an application can fall into to be acceptable. Can the Minister comment on density as it relates to these provisions? I said that the Mayor should not be able to trample on the boroughs; nor should he be able to impose any sort of homogeneity across London. The noble Baroness referred to Westminster as being of a particular character, and the character of the different boroughs is important. It is refreshing to think about Westminster rather than the City, but I had not thought of the whole of the borough of Westminster being so very different from the rest of London. The West End has a particular character, but there are other areas of London which are of a different character from the West End but not so very different from other parts of London. With apologies to those who are working very hard in Westminster, I would not support a particular position for that borough. On the lead amendment in this group, 150 units does not seem that small a development; it is pretty substantial. A development of 500 units, which the noble Baroness advocates in her amendment as a threshold, is a very large development indeed. I have had no professional advice on this, but a 500-unit development might be, for example, one of the major commercial sites along the river, where very big blocks of flats have been developed. Having said all that and generally being supportive of what the Government propose, I must say that leaving the term ““potential strategic importance”” in an order that might change in future is not a position that I am happy with. However, the draft order that we have now reassures me a great deal—or it did before I left my office to come here this afternoon. I think that it is right to air this. I have been seeking to get information from London Councils, having understood indirectly that that body was content with the position. From the e-mail that I received, it seems that there has been no formal discussion with London Councils—there has been informal officer discussion. We are therefore having this debate in the absence ofa view from that organisation. The officer who responded to my inquiries said that he understood that the Mayor had approached Labour borough leaders to get their agreement, but that London Councils had not been approached by the Mayor or by Ministers about whether this package was likely to be acceptable to boroughs. A letter which London Councils’ lead members wrote to the Minister, Yvette Cooper, on 23 April about the Mayor’s new planning powers remains unanswered. I would have given the noble Baroness warning of that, but it is no doubt somewhere in her papers. I received it just before I left my office. I have given the Minister notice of my final question. Given that the Mayor cannot delegate, what happens if he comments, even casually, on an application or proposed application? I have three examples. The first is Heathrow. I assume that Heathrow will not be an issue. The Mayor has made his views on further development at Heathrow very clear. It will probably be taken care of if the Government’s proposals about a new commission come into effect. The second example is the Olympic Games. The Mayor has delegated his planning position on the Olympics site applications to the GLA’s chief executive because he has an obvious conflict of interest. The third example, wharfs, shows what could happen in other policy areas. I understand that the Mayor delegated the decision on the Peruvian Wharf because he had already issued a policy on preserving the wharfs and was therefore in a position of conflict. If the Mayor cannot delegate at all, but gets himself into a position, intentionally or not, where a conflict of interest arises, what is to happen?