Greater London Authority Bill

The hon. Gentleman knows that I am very sympathetic to many of the things that he is saying, but the difficulty is that the judgments about national and regional interest are subjective ones. Rotherhithe has just had a great battle with the Secretary of State over a small planning application that went to inquiry. The inspector recommend that the local authority view be supported, but the Secretary of State has ignored that and supported the developer, presumably because she thinks that it is more than just a local matter. However, we are talking about a very small site that is not in a metropolitan centre. People fear that in such a case, a different judgment is applied and a perceived regional or national interest is imposed, when it fact, it should be an entirely local matter.