Greater London Authority Bill

The hon. Gentleman is an expert on flip-flops, but I think that we heard enough from him earlier. At the centre of the Bill, as we acknowledge, are the questions of housing and planning. New housing powers are needed in London because there are problems with overcrowding and lack of supply, which were highlighted in my hon. Friends’ eloquent contributions. If we are to increase the housing supply London, we must look at which boroughs have delivered on the ground and exceeded their housing target. Wandsworth has exceeded it by 168 per cent., Westminster by 124 per cent., Bromley by 124 per cent., and Bexley by 205 per cent. Those councils are all united by the fact that they are Conservative-controlled: they deliver housing, they exceed their targets, and they deliver for their voters. At the bottom of the league table, the councils that fail to deliver housing are Camden, which delivers only 90 per cent. of its targets, Barking, which delivers only 83 per cent., Merton, which delivers only 54 per cent., and Waltham Forest, which delivers only 45 per cent. All those councils are united by the fact that until recently they were Labour-led. There is a record of Labour failure to deliver housing to the people of London. The answer to the question of what we can do to increase housing supply in London is clear—vote Conservative. The Bill’s planning powers were criticised by the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich, and by the hon. Member for Vauxhall, who rightly pointed out that the Mayor exercises his powers in secret and that there is a lack of transparency. As the right hon. Gentleman pointed out, there are serious questions about whether the extension of his powers will lead to a conflict of interest and allegations of impropriety. We have heard about the bureaucratic nature of the process. The Minister said that the Mayor interfered in very few planning applications. Sadly, the facts are different."““Facts are chiels that winna ding,””" as Robert Burns pointed out—and the facts in this case show that the Mayor has intervened in planning applications 1,269 times. Excluding high days and holy days, he has intervened for every day that he has been in power. Under the current powers, he was not able to get his way, but the Minister wants the Mayor to have his way. She would open the door to the Mayor’s interfering in more and more decisions. That interference would lead to the system becoming more bureaucratic and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) observed, that would lead to greater delays. Westminster council manages to process 75 per cent. of its planning applications within 13 weeks. The Government’s target is 60 per cent. of planning applications. Once again, a Conservative council is delivering a better service for its residents, and in consequence more housing. Under the provisions of the Bill, the Mayor would intervene nine weeks after the planning application was received—a recipe for further confusion, delay and bureaucracy, and the frustration of residents’ demand for speedy processing of planning applications and better housing.