Labour Government makes Town Hall wait for planners

“DISAPPOINTING” is how Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman greeted the news that the Labour Government has delayed the hearing of the new Local Plan. This is why it matters.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman started working on the Local Plan at the start of his third Administration (that’s just after he won the mayoral election in 2022). It set out planning principles for the whole of the borough: once those principles are in place, everyone from major developers to a shop that wants outdoor seating has principles they can follow when they do their planning applications.

As the new Local Plan evolved, it came to have a major emphasis on housing. Having homes that residents can afford to live in was a mayoral priority, and the Local Plan was the tool to deliver them. The Plan also laid the basis for bringing jobs to the Borough. It protected local history and open spaces. It records clear facts about how the Borough can develop, pretty much preventing scaremongering rumours from circulating about future development.

The Local Plan has been through several rounds of consultation in the borough and it has now reached its last stage. A government Planning Inspector will come to the borough and go through its contents – in public. Three inspectors were due to come to the borough to run this public examination – starting today, 7th July. And that’s where it has gone wrong.

The City of London has been doing its own Local Plan. A few days ago, Keir Starmer’s Housing and Planning Minister, Matthew Pennycock – MP for Greenwich and Woolwich – became concerned about it. He wrote to the City, stating that he was worried that too much development in the City might overshadow London’s heritage sites – such as the Tower of London. He asked them to reconsider their Plan and their Tall Buildings Policy in the light of this issue. The City said it “strongly disagreed” with the delay the reconsideration caused for its own planning process.

The Tower of London is actually in Tower Hamlets – it provides half the Borough’s name! It could just about be overshadowed by a massive development on the very eastern fringe of the City and that would be a bad thing. But it is hard to understand why the Government has suddenly become concerned about development near the Tower, as it has recently agreed to build a massive Chinese Embassy just round the corner. Ahem.

Tower Hamlets Council’s Strategic Development Committee had turned down the planning application for the Embassy, but the Government pulled rank and agreed it – not the first time Labour High Command has over-ruled the wishes of local people.

Residents of Lansbury are still waiting for Chrisp Street Market to be developed. They don’t need more delay.

The Minister’s letter asks the City to look at their Plan again, to consider whether it adequately protects heritage sites. Two of the inspectors who were due to serve on the public examination of the Tower Hamlets Plan were also part of the team inspecting the City Plan.

The Labour Government says it wants to create jobs, but it seems unable – or unwilling – to find new inspectors so that the Tower Hamlets hearing can go ahead. Keir Starmer once complained about how bureaucracy was stopping him implementing change. Here is an example of how bureaucracy is stopping progress but it is one that Starmer could by-pass very quickly – if the will was there.

While the Government shuffles inspectors like pawns on a chessboard, the people of Tower Hamlets have had their Plan delayed. These are the people who need the housing and jobs which that Plan was to help deliver – and we must question why the Labour Party wants to delay the delivery of these projects.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman keeps pointing out that he was elected by the people to serve the people.  He deplored the news, saying, “This is disappointing for both Tower Hamlets and the City of London. The Tower Hamlets Local Plan sets out our clear and practical plan to support the housing and economic growth that our borough, our city, and our country need. This includes delivering the genuinely affordable homes that are urgently required to tackle London’s desperate and worsening housing crisis.”

The Planning Inspectorate says that it will announce new dates for the Tower Hamlets hearing “in due course”. Don’t hold your breath.

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