Councils stand in way of Boris LDA power grab
Council leaders in London have failed to reach agreement with Boris Johnson’s office on his proposal to devolve key development powers to the mayor of London.
It emerged today that after consultation with London boroughs and the London Assembly, proposals made in June to hand powers over the London Development Agency (LDA) and the Olympic legacy to the mayor needed “further discussion”.
In a letter to communities secretary Eric Pickles today, Johnson, Jules Pipe, the chair of London Councils, and Dee Doocey, the London Assembly chair, all expressed agreement on devolving a variety of development powers, including scrapping the Homes and Communities Agency in London.
However, there were concerns that more power for Johnson over the LDA and the Olympic Park Legacy Company would mean the boroughs losing out.
Johnson had proposed that the existing Olympic Park Legacy Company should become a Mayoral Development Corporation, with planning powers over areas in Hackney, Newham, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlet.
But London boroughs want to retain planning powers and use them jointly with the mayor, while the London Assembly supports devolution to London but not “extraction of powers from boroughs”.
The parties also failed to agree on folding the LDA’s powers into the Greater London Agency, with London Councils concerned about what will happen to the LDA’s employment and skills funding.
Chair of the London Assembly, Dee Doocey, said: “Today’s landmark joint proposal sets out a devolution package for London with the robust transparency and accountability we believe are essential to effective government.
“The crux of our position is that if the mayor – whoever that may be – is made more powerful, the Assembly’s powers must also be strengthened to ensure the mayor is fully accountable to Londoners through their elected representatives on the Assembly.”
To read Hackney’s cabinet member for regeneration Guy Nicholson blogging on the plans, click here: ‘Double devolution’ raises as many questions as it answers
To read the letter in full, click here: Devolution to London
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[...] cap it all, the boroughs, now largely Labour-led, are showing signs of unease about the increasing centralisation of powers proposed by Boris’s Policy Exchange fundies. [...]
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