Jenrick is under pressure to resign as the newly released documents indicate that he insisted the planning decision for the £1bn development should be rushed through so that a Tory donor’s company could reduce costs by up to £50m.
In one document, a civil servant in the ministry for housing, communities and local government wrote that the secretary of state wanted the Westferry development in east London to be signed off the following day so that Desmond’s company would avoid the Community Infrastructure Levy. The official wrote:
On timing, my understanding is that SoS is/was insistent that decision issued this week ie tomorrow – as next week the viability of the scheme is impacted by a change in the London CIL regime.
Jenrick has also previously confirmed that he looked at images of the development on the phone of Desmond, the former owner of Express Newspapers, at a Tory fundraising event, as revealed by the Sunday Times.
Papers relating to Richard Desmond planning decision published
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The head of Scotland’s largest teaching union has written an excoriating letter to members highlighting the “anxiety, frustration, confusion and even anger” prompted by the Scottish government’s decision yesterday to park agreed plans for a socially distanced return to schools in August, instead telling teachers to prepare for full-time return with no distancing.
The move came after a significant backlash from concerned parents who were facing indefinite part-time schooling as some years groups were told pupils would only be spending one or two days each week in classrooms and the rest at home.
The general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), Larry Flanagan, described it as a “political announcement”, and said that the statement had not been discussed with the CERG (Covid Education Recovery Group), of which he is a member.
In a strongly-worded members’ email, Flanagan said the sudden policy shift from blended model of at-home and in-school learning to accommodate distancing to no distancing was a “maybes aye; maybes naw” scenario, dependent on levels of virus suppression in seven weeks’ time and giving no certainty in the interim.
He also highlighted to frustration of teachers who had been working hard to put blended learning in place, only to have the plans change dramatically in the week – and in some cases on the day – that term ends.
He added that the EIS “is not convinced that no physical distancing between pupils is safe and we are absolutely certain that physical distancing between pupils and teachers remains essential”. Accepting that by August the amount of distance required may have been reduced from the current 2-metre requirement – the Scottish government’s scientific advisory group will report on this by 2 July – Flannagan insisted “there cannot be a social distancing rule for outside of schools and a different one for inside classrooms”.
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No 10 refuses to accept call from medical leaders for review of UK readiness for Covid-19 second wave
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Jenrick to release government papers relating to controversial Richard Desmond planning decision
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