Housebuilder slams Jenrick over ‘paralysed’ regeneration

The chief executive of Inland Homes has written to housing secretary Robert Jenrick, slating him for costing the country jobs and investment through his own delayed call-in decision. Stephen Wicks launched a scathing attack on the housing secretary in an open letter, after waiting 131 days for a formal decision on the 514-home Master Brewer scheme. Jenrick called-in the development last summer, overruling London mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision to green light the scheme. It followed Hillingdon Council’s refusal of the plans over the proximity to the green belt, with concerns over excessive height and density. Wicks said the housing secretary’s failure to come to a decision is “singlehandedly putting hundreds of jobs at risk without reason”. He said: “By continuing to paralyse the project via this holding order you are directly putting the jobs of these staff at risk unnecessarily.” Wicks adds that the halted development is preventing investment of “tens of millions of pounds” for the local economy and more than 1,600 jobs, on top of £7.9m in developer contributions for local infrastructure and 182 affordable homes. “At a time when you are encouraging further housing delivery to take place in the major cities across the UK, particularly London, I am at a loss as to why you continue to hold onto a planning application that is fully compliant with London Plan policies,” he adds. Wicks said the impasse is “seriously endangering the entire viability of the project”. He estimates the holding order has cost the developer £700,000, following on from £2m in planning costs. He adds: “It is little surprise to me that with such a cumbersome and multi-tiered planning system our industry has continually failed to deliver our housing delivery targets. “You tell us to ‘build, build, build’ yet here you stand in our way.” To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette Image courtesy of PR