Greater London Authority Bill

My right hon. Friend makes an important point. We think that that needs to be set out in secondary legislation and we intend to publish that before the Committee stage discussions on this aspect of the Bill. It is important to do that through secondary legislation because that gives us a further opportunity to review the details and to have a process to amend the secondary legislation, should that prove necessary over time. One of the reasons why we have not yet published the detail for what the policy test should be is exactly that we have been undertaking detailed discussions with the London boroughs, the Mayor, London First and a series of regional organisations and stakeholders across London to try to build a consensus on the most effective way for the test to work. My right hon. Friend is right to say that we need to get the balance right and to focus on the major strategic decisions that are fundamental to the London plan, rather than on individual applications, which would be far better dealt with by the borough, which has the expertise and is involved in leading the debate about the impact on the local community and place. We are clear about that. We are also interested in how, as part of that process, we can best take account of the borough’s previous record in delivering against key issues in the London plan.