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Post by northwestman on Jun 28, 2020 18:25:19 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Jun 29, 2020 7:04:15 GMT 1
During a Commons debate earlier this year, Robert Jenrick singled out one vital planning policy that helps deprived communities.
The Housing Secretary argued it was right that developers making huge sums from major housing schemes should pay the so-called Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to local councils, which can then spend the cash on schools, health centres, roads and so on.
Declaring that the tax went to ‘crucial’ causes, Mr Jenrick added: ‘As a result of changes we have made recently, there will shortly be greater transparency so that residents can see where this money is going.’
Transparency? The beleaguered minister is clinging to his job by his fingertips after being accused of rushing through planning approval of a £1 billion housing project so developer Richard Desmond — who happens to be a Tory donor — could avoid paying a £45 million CIL bill.
That money would have gone to Tower Hamlets in East London, one of the most deprived boroughs in Britain.
Daily Mail.
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Post by northwestman on Jun 29, 2020 18:38:57 GMT 1
The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, hasn’t had a good crisis. First he was accused of breaking lockdown rules, and now he’s embroiled in a lobbying scandal. So it’s probably a blessing that nobody has noticed how he has benefited — albeit indirectly — from slavery.
Eye Manor, a grade I listed Herefordshire house that Jenrick bought for £1.1m in 2009, was built in 1680 by Ferdinando Gorges, a Barbados slave trader so notorious that he was known as “the King of the Black Market”.
According to a report by Historic England, the Gorges coat of arms is displayed on an upstairs landing. In the current atmosphere Jenrick might need something to cover that up. How about a nice portrait of Richard Desmond?
The Times.
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Post by northwestman on Jun 29, 2020 18:48:06 GMT 1
You can see why Boris doesn't think that what Jenrick is doing is any big deal.
When he was mayor of London Boris Johnson was eager to deliver what developers wanted.
He told the summit of the ultra-rich in Davos in 2014 that he was on a mission to persuade the owners of “some truly whopping chequebooks” to invest in London.
The same year he backed the privatised Royal Mail’s proposals for the Mount Pleasant sorting office site. He took over the planning decision before Camden and Islington Councils had even had a chance to consider the application.
A mere 24 percent of the housing approved by Johnson was “affordable”. Royal Mail went on to sell the site at a 565 percent mark up to developer Taylor Wimpey for £193 million.
In 2013 Johnson overturned Southwark council’s objection to a proposed free school project in Bermondsey. It included 158 flats in two buildings, one a 19-storey tower block. The school attracted a maximum of 60 children and closed abruptly in February 2017.
Johnson also backed the Battersea Power Station redevelopment, approved by him with just 12 percent affordable housing. Wandsworth council subsequently allowed the developer to reduce this to 9 percent.
Johnson’s record on affordable housing was so poor that in his last year in office he oversaw planning permissions that granted only 13 percent affordable homes.
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Post by northwestman on Jun 30, 2020 13:22:29 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Jun 30, 2020 14:51:59 GMT 1
Jenrick, a father of three and a former director of the auction house Christie’s, was one of three young MPs to back Johnson early in the Tory leadership contest. The others were Rishi Sunak and Oliver Dowden. All were rewarded with plum cabinet posts. Jenrick also boasts of his friendship with Carrie Symonds, Johnson’s fiancée.
Some MPs bristle at his obvious ambition and refer to him as “Robert Generic”. One MP said: “There’s a suspicion that he doesn’t actually believe in anything. He just wants to move up the ladder.” They added that unlike Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, there were “few” points of principle over which he would plausibly resign.
A whistleblower said: “Robert Jenrick has pretty much been the worst secretary of state that I’ve had the pleasure of working for.”
They claimed Jenrick had ignored or rejected advice on other occasions and expressed little appreciation of his quasi-judicial role as housing secretary — that is, someone who must make decisions based on planning law, rather than politics.
Any hint of bias can derail a project, which is why planning decisions are usually announced in sober and legalistic letters. But Jenrick is said to have overruled officials and demanded politically charged announcements on controversial plans, including a proposed Holocaust memorial in Westminster and an Indian museum in Camden, north London.
Civil servants are said to have expressed their displeasure to Tom Kennedy, his special adviser, only to be told that Jenrick had “made his decision”. He now faces another High Court battle and judicial review over his decision on the Holocaust memorial.
The whistleblower said Jenrick further infuriated civil servants during the general election campaign, when he insisted the department spend taxpayers’ money buying Facebook ads to promote the Towns Fund, a communities initiative.
The ads apparently violated purdah rules by pledging Tory investment in “red wall” seats. In a “standoffish” meeting about the Towns Fund attended by his special advisers, Jenrick is said to have told a senior civil servant that it was, in effect, “My way or the highway . . . We had to get with the programme or p**s off. It was that simple.”
The source said: “The arrogance of the man was just astounding. He wouldn’t listen to anything the civil servants were saying to him. He really had a political ambition, which he was trying to use us to support.”
The Times.
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Post by northwestman on Jul 1, 2020 11:58:19 GMT 1
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Post by blood red shrews on Jul 1, 2020 12:21:59 GMT 1
Music Venue Trust are who i do have some involvement with are on this at the moment and if all these new policies still honour the guarantees made about protecting venues, dire times for the live music industry and arts as a whole. |
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Post by zenfootball2 on Jul 1, 2020 12:44:37 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Jul 1, 2020 13:22:06 GMT 1
labourlist.org/2020/06/exclusive-pm-shouldve-sacked-jenrick-says-labours-steve-reed/'In an exclusive interview with LabourList, the Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary described Jenrick as an “absolute disaster” in his ministerial role, with a “massive sense of privilege and entitlement”. Reed said there are not just concerns over Westferry, but also Jenrick’s intervention in a development at Sandown racecourse, his Westminster townhouse extension and reports of “major contracts going to companies led by Tory donors”'. I'd add to that list the Holocaust Memorial.
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Post by northwestman on Jul 1, 2020 14:54:29 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Jul 2, 2020 8:00:43 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/01/mps-ask-robert-jenrick-long-list-of-questions-about-1bn-land-dealRobert Jenrick, the housing secretary, is facing a demand to appear before a parliamentary committee to respond to unanswered questions about his relationship with the Tory donor Richard Desmond and the £1bn Westferry property deal. The housing select committee has disagreed with Boris Johnson’s claim that “the matter is closed”, asking Jenrick to appear before them on 13 July and sending him a list of 26 questions about the affair. The demand will ensure the row over the deal continues, despite efforts by Johnson to deny that the ministerial code has been broken. He has refused to refer Jenrick for investigation by the outgoing cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill.
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Post by northwestman on Jul 2, 2020 8:05:03 GMT 1
Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, has given a “multibillion-pound” planning windfall to freehold investors including those in a fund run by David Cameron’s brother-in-law.
Under reforms, owners of residential tower blocks will be allowed to extend their developments upwards by two storeys without planning permission from the start of next month.
One of the biggest beneficiaries is a fund run by William Waldorf Astor IV, Samantha Cameron’s half-brother, which contains hundreds of residential freeholds. Other potential beneficiaries include Vincent Tchenguiz, the property tycoon, as well as anonymous and offshore investors.
With interests in 190,000 leasehold flats, Mr Astor’s Long Harbour fund is the second-largest freehold investor in Britain after Mr Tchenguiz’s Consensus Business Group. Experts say the total that freehold investors stand to gain from the policy change could run into billions of pounds.
The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership estimates that about 1,900 freeholds in Mr Astor’s fund could benefit. The charity says that if each of these freeholds add four flats, at a profit margin of £250,000 each, the fund will rise in value by £1.9 billion.
The Times.
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Post by northwestman on Jul 2, 2020 8:10:00 GMT 1
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Post by zenfootball2 on Jul 2, 2020 8:59:28 GMT 1
It is not the first time Mr Jenrick, a former director of Christie's, has faced difficult questions over his property portfolio. In 2014, he rejected claims that he had covered up his £5 million empire in an attempt to win the Newark seat. In his election leaflets, he claimed to be "a father, local man, son of a secretary and small businessman and state primary school-educated" candidate. But the literature failed to mention that he and his wife Michal Berkner, a partner at law firm Cooley LLP, had bought the manor house in Herefordshire in 2009. The couple already owned a flat in Marylebone, Central London, bought in 2004 for £850,000 and now worth an estimated £2.3 million. Asked at the time if he would sell the mansion and be moving to the constituency, Mr Jenrick replied that he was "almost sure" he would. To prove his commitment to Newark, he rented a £2,000-a-month taxpayer funded third home in the area. However the amount of time he spends there is unclear, and a spokesman would not comment on the matter on Friday. Asked in 2014 how many nights the family spent in the house, Mr Jenrick replied: "Er, it has grown over time." In 2013, shortly before he became an MP, the couple spent £2.5 million on the Westminster townhouse and set up home with their young daughters. Instead of selling the Herefordshire mansion they embarked on an extensive renovation programme, with plans for a new "service wing", ensuite bathrooms and a cupola. Planning documents show the couple wished to "secure its future" as a viable family home. Daily Telegraph. he wont resign and after cummings i dont see Boris sacking him |
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Post by northwestman on Jul 2, 2020 9:09:13 GMT 1
It is not the first time Mr Jenrick, a former director of Christie's, has faced difficult questions over his property portfolio. In 2014, he rejected claims that he had covered up his £5 million empire in an attempt to win the Newark seat. In his election leaflets, he claimed to be "a father, local man, son of a secretary and small businessman and state primary school-educated" candidate. But the literature failed to mention that he and his wife Michal Berkner, a partner at law firm Cooley LLP, had bought the manor house in Herefordshire in 2009. The couple already owned a flat in Marylebone, Central London, bought in 2004 for £850,000 and now worth an estimated £2.3 million. Asked at the time if he would sell the mansion and be moving to the constituency, Mr Jenrick replied that he was "almost sure" he would. To prove his commitment to Newark, he rented a £2,000-a-month taxpayer funded third home in the area. However the amount of time he spends there is unclear, and a spokesman would not comment on the matter on Friday. Asked in 2014 how many nights the family spent in the house, Mr Jenrick replied: "Er, it has grown over time." In 2013, shortly before he became an MP, the couple spent £2.5 million on the Westminster townhouse and set up home with their young daughters. Instead of selling the Herefordshire mansion they embarked on an extensive renovation programme, with plans for a new "service wing", ensuite bathrooms and a cupola. Planning documents show the couple wished to "secure its future" as a viable family home. Daily Telegraph. he wont resign and after cummings i dont see Boris sacking him Apparently, he's not too well regarded by a number of Tory backbenchers. But then neither is Cummings, so I take your point. |
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Post by northwestman on Jul 4, 2020 9:30:59 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Jul 5, 2020 6:28:53 GMT 1
www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/exclusive-robert-jenrick-new-cash-favours-row/Boris Johnson’s embattled housing secretary Robert Jenrick has been drawn into another row involving Tory donors and controversial planning decisions, openDemocracy can reveal today. Property developer Mark Quinn made major donations to the Conservatives directly before and after Jenrick chose to take responsibility for deciding on Quinn’s bid to build 675 houses in Sittingbourne, Kent. Shortly before Jenrick became involved in the decision, the developer, Quinn Estates, gave £11,000 to the Conservatives. Less than three weeks later, the firm donated a further £26,500 to the party.
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Post by northwestman on Jul 5, 2020 12:48:57 GMT 1
So, let's sum up the issues involving Jenrick so far.
1. Lying about where his 1st and 2nd homes are situated, thereby breaking the rules.
2. Questions about whether his visit to his parents was justified, or whether it also broke the rules.
3. Misleading claims in his election leaflets.
4. £100,000 expenses claims for rent and council tax for a house in Newark that he rents for £2,000 a month, the bill being met by the taxpayer.
5. False statement at the Daily Briefing about PPE 'set to arrive from Turkey tomorrow'. The 400,000 gowns not only arrived days late but were all deemed to be useless.
6. The £800,000 renovations to his London Townhouse. Questions as to how he obtained planning permission and why he set up a separate Company to pay the bill (VAT rebate?).
7. The Westfield Printworks development.
8. The Holocaust Memorial application.
9. The Sandown Park Racecourse development.
10. The Sittingbourne, Kent development.
11. His links to Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer, who owned a rival Company to Sirius Minerals. Sirius Minerals was denied vital funding by the government.
12. The connections between both Jenrick and his wife to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, and whether this has any link to the suppressed report on Russian Interference in UK democracy.
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Post by wakemanender on Jul 5, 2020 13:56:42 GMT 1
To sum it up hes been a very naughty boy.
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Post by ssshrew on Jul 5, 2020 14:05:43 GMT 1
And will get away with it with this immoral bunch of hypocrites in power.
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Post by northwestman on Jul 5, 2020 16:57:04 GMT 1
And will get away with it with this immoral bunch of hypocrites in power. I have the feeling there is more to run from point 9 in that list Sheila. |
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Post by ssshrew on Jul 5, 2020 17:21:12 GMT 1
I do hope you are right. I’m getting really cheesed off with what this lot are getting away with things time after time and these are only the ones that have come to light.
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Post by northwestman on Jul 6, 2020 7:15:13 GMT 1
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2020 7:29:22 GMT 1
I’d hate to get on the wrong side of you NWM! 👍
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Post by northwestman on Jul 6, 2020 7:50:03 GMT 1
I’d hate to get on the wrong side of you NWM! 👍 It's certainly something which links to point 12 in my list above. |
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Post by zenfootball2 on Jul 6, 2020 8:33:52 GMT 1
So, let's sum up the issues involving Jenrick so far. 1. Lying about where his 1st and 2nd homes are situated, thereby breaking the rules. 2. Questions about whether his visit to his parents was justified, or whether it also broke the rules. 3. Misleading claims in his election leaflets. 4. £100,000 expenses claims for rent and council tax for a house in Newark that he rents for £2,000 a month, the bill being met by the taxpayer. 5. False statement at the Daily Briefing about PPE 'set to arrive from Turkey tomorrow'. The 400,000 gowns not only arrived days late but were all deemed to be useless. 6. The £800,000 renovations to his London Townhouse. Questions as to how he obtained planning permission and why he set up a separate Company to pay the bill (VAT rebate?). 7. The Westfield Printworks development. 8. The Holocaust Memorial application. 9. The Sandown Park Racecourse development. 10. The Sittingbourne, Kent development. 11. His links to Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer, who owned a rival Company to Sirius Minerals. Sirius Minerals was denied vital funding by the government. 12. The connections between both Jenrick and his wife to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, and whether this has any link to the suppressed report on Russian Interference in UK democracy. this goverment is morally bankrupt and i despise the lot of them as somone said " truth twisters" |
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Post by northwestman on Jul 6, 2020 8:42:31 GMT 1
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Post by Mortgagehound on Jul 6, 2020 12:21:20 GMT 1
Is this a one man crusade..........
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Post by billynomates on Jul 6, 2020 12:29:14 GMT 1
Is this a one man crusade.......... It seems to be the case. I especially wonder why the prolific poster deems this message board as the place to carry on his rant. Bury Football Club was perhaps more deserving of his and our attention. Politics has its place and Blue & Amber is not the place for it. |
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