Compulsory Purchase Order (Shepherd's Bush Market)
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)
Although it is a pleasure to be here under your chairmanship this afternoon, Madam Deputy Speaker, I regret that I am closing this week’s proceedings with something of a tale of woe. It concerns the egregious and concerted acts of the state at all levels to ruin the livelihoods of small businesses, destroy a 100-year-old market, and demolish desperately needed homes and services for the most vulnerable in our society. This is being done to advance the private interests of and secure inflated profits for a developer who intends to build on the market site more than 200 luxury investment properties, out of scale in size and out of reach in price for the people of Shepherd’s Bush.
Notwithstanding the fact that this is a cause célèbre in my constituency, I would probably not be raising it in this House on that ground alone. Shepherd’s Bush market is a famous London landmark, but even its strongest supporters would be hard pressed to say it was a site of strategic national importance. Yet this Government have seen fit to weigh in to this highly contentious local issue on the side of the developer and specifically to use their statutory powers to overrule the decision of their own planning inspector, and that is the reason for this debate. Specifically, the Government have refused to endorse the inspector’s decision, taken after weeks of evidence and reflected in a compelling and detailed inquiry report, to overturn the previous Conservative council’s attempt to compulsorily purchase the market area in the developer’s interest. Instead, giving no reason or explanation, the Government have simply overturned that decision, in order to allow the development to proceed.
Before I go into some detail and pose some questions to the Minister, perhaps I should say a little by way of background about the market and the proposed development. The market was, until earlier this year, in the ownership of Transport for London—the historical reason for that is that the market is, in part, under the railway arches that run between Goldhawk road and Shepherd’s Bush Market station. TfL neglected the condition of the market for some years, preferring to take the rents and pocket the money than to invest in it. There is a certain irony there, given that a Transport for London Bill—I am one of its objectors—is passing through the House at the moment. The Bill sets out to do exactly what TfL has not done with Shepherd’s Bush market: invest in its assets for a return, rather than running them down and flogging them off.
But flogging off the market is exactly what TfL did, and one can see the dead hand of the Mayor of London in that decision. Developing the market into luxury flats was the pet project of the former leader of the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, who is now the deputy mayor for policing and has the Mayor’s ear. Shortly after taking control of the borough in 2006, the Conservatives set out to redevelop the market area for no other reason than that its profile did not fit their brave new world vision for Shepherd’s Bush.
I will pause in my speech to offer the Minister a lightning sketch of the market area, because he might not be as familiar as I am with that part of the world, although I strongly recommend a visit. At its heart is the market, which is celebrating its centenary. It is partly railway arches, partly stalls and partly shops. Many of the firms have been there for generations—some since the market opened—and many are family businesses. Most are run by people from minority communities. They are not huge profit-making businesses, but the market is fully let and people pay their rents.
The reason the market is so important to my constituents is that they can buy basic goods there—fruit, vegetables and household goods—for about half the price they could in a supermarket, but it also has an extraordinary range of goods from all over the world, and many of them are simply not seen elsewhere, even in the rest of London. It has the richest display and variety of goods to be found anywhere in London. All that stands to be lost under these proposals.
That is only part of the market area. There are also about 20 shops on Goldhawk road, all under different ownership, ranging from a pie and mash shop to fabric shops, diners and electrical goods stores. Again, a feature of them all is that they have been in the same ownership for many years. They are small, local businesses that are run by people who have made them their livelihoods. In many respects they are unique, and people come from not only the local area, but further afield because of that uniqueness and the range of goods they supply.
On other parts of the site there is a homeless hostel, a day centre and move-on accommodation. Part of it was due for development into affordable social housing, but the previous Conservative council prevented that. There is also the old Shepherd’s Bush library, which is about the only part that has survived in anything like the form my constituents would like to see, although the library has moved to a new site. Although the Conservatives planned to sell off the site for an antiques market and restaurant, I am pleased to say that, because of a covenant on the building, it is now the home of the Bush theatre—about the only glint of light in this whole sorry show.
All those socially useful and diverse businesses were to be replaced—are still to be replaced, under the Government’s plans—by chain stores, bijou stalls selling scented candles and the like and, above all, what we in Hammersmith call zombie flats for oligarchs, meaning tall, empty buildings where people from abroad with money that they do not want anyone else to get their hands on dump it, adding nothing to the area at all.
That would have happened by now, were it not for the resistance of the local community, the traders and, above all, the Goldhawk road shopkeepers, led very ably by Aniza Meghani, who runs Classic Textiles. They have fought two judicial reviews, one of which they won, and a public inquiry, which they won, and now they will probably fight an appeal against the Secretary of State’s decision. Every time the Tory majority on the council pushes through a planning application, a decision to buy up land in the developer’s interest, or finally to compulsorily purchase the land and save the by then failing development, the shopkeepers hit back. They have risked their life savings to protect their livelihoods. It is a typical David and Goliath struggle.
Then in May, in part because of the actions in respect of Shepherd’s Bush market, “Cameron’s favourite council” in Hammersmith and Fulham was unceremoniously booted out by the electorate. Sadly, however, the legal agreements which the previous council had signed are binding on the current administration, although I know that the new Labour administration is doing everything it legally can to support the market and the current businesses.
Against that background, I turn to the inspector’s report. I remind the Minister that this was an inquiry to which the shopkeepers and stallholders were entitled because of the very unusual decision, in my experience, to compulsorily purchase the entire area of land, including the Goldhawk road shops and the market itself. This was subject to a planning inquiry in September last year. The report is thorough and detailed. It was dated 10 February 2014, but nobody saw anything of it, extraordinarily, until on 10 October this year the Minister with responsibility for housing and planning, the Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis), wrote to the objectors—about 130 at that stage—including myself and those who had given evidence at the inquiry.
Given the time available, I shall read two paragraphs from the report. The first is the Minister’s summation of the inspector’s view:
“The Inspector has recommended that the Order”—
that is, the compulsory purchase order—
“should not be confirmed because she concluded that the guarantees and safeguards are not sufficiently robust to be assured that genuine opportunities exist for current traders and/or shopkeepers (or similarly diverse businesses) to continue trading in the Market and Goldhawk Road. . . Without such assurances, the Inspector concludes there is a real risk that the Market and replacement Goldhawk Road shops will not provide the ethnic diversity, independent or small scale retailing environment that is central to the appeal of the area. The Inspector concludes that whilst such uncertainties exist, the personal losses and widespread interference with private interests arising from confirmation of the Order cannot be justified.”
That is a succinct summation of a very detailed report, which is compelling and clear in its decision that this is an entirely inappropriate use of a CPO process. Certainly, in 30 years here and in local government I have never seen that done. The Minister would be hard pressed, I think, to give a similar example.
The Minister’s colleague’s letter, having expressed the inspector’s view, concludes:
“The Secretary of State considers that sufficient safeguards are in place to ensure that regeneration of the market to create a vibrant mixed use town centre development will be achieved and that existing Market traders and shopkeepers or new operators with similarly qualitative and diverse offerings will be protected.”
That is it. In one sentence a whole district of Shepherd’s Bush and the livelihoods of several hundred people are swept away. It will now be very difficult for those protagonists, despite having won their case hands down at the inquiry, to recover the very substantial costs that they incurred in employing legal counsel over a period of several weeks.
In a previous debate in Westminster Hall I sought to raise the issue with the Minister. Because of shortage of time there, he wrote to me, referring me to the letter from which I have just quoted. That is the reason why I asked for the debate today. It is not satisfactory within the rule of law for a Government to behave in this way. We are dealing with individuals who have given their lives to their businesses. They are exactly the sort of people who, according to the rhetoric of Government, the Government should stick up for. They are people such as Aniza Meghani, who aged 7 was a refugee with her family from the Amin regime, came to this country with nothing and has built up a thriving and popular business. These people not only have devoted their lives to their families and businesses, but often do a huge amount of charitable and good work in the area. There is no better example than that of Turker Cakici, who is better known as Mr Zippy because he runs Zippy’s Diner in the parade of shops. That is probably the only authentic 1960s diner still going in the UK, with all its original fittings. Those are two examples of people who have worked in or near the market for 30 or 40 years, but every stallholder and shopkeeper has a similar story to tell. Why should the private interests of those individuals be wiped out to be replaced by faceless shops and flats simply to give profit to a developer who appears to be a favoured developer, if not a personal acquaintance, of a number of people involved in the decision-making process?
This decision is wrong in law. Unless the Government reconsider it, there will no doubt be a further statutory appeal with similar properties to a further judicial review, and the matter will go back into court for another year or more. I believe that my constituents will eventually win and that the developer, Orion, will walk away, taking what money it can out of the situation and leaving in its wake six or seven years of wasted time, not to mention the huge emotional and financial damage that it has done to individuals and, indeed, the whole of Shepherd’s Bush.
The decision was unwisely made by the local authority, which is now history and has been punished by the electorate. I cannot see why this should be a matter for the Government. The Minister may wish to explain why the Government felt unable to rely on the evidence and decision making of their own Planning Inspectorate. He may also wish—if not today, in writing to me—to deal with whether he believes that these decisions are legally binding. In light of the inspector’s report, he may wish to look at section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, under which a public body has a duty to assess the impact of its policies on eliminating discrimination and promoting equality. He may wish to consider whether the planning authorities and his ministerial colleague gave due regard to their statutory duties when reaching their decision. He may wish to look at whether his Department has carried out an equality impact assessment to assess the outcome of their policies, because if not, it may be in breach of its statutory duties. Unless the Government decide to look at all these matters again—I will be interested to hear the Minister’s latest thinking—they are likely to be dealt with by the High Court.
This has been a reductive process under which mistakes have been made for political as well as ideological reasons, because the attitude of the Mayor and Conservative councillors in London is that they do not welcome the diversity and facilities that Shepherd’s Bush market, social housing and shops in the area provide. They would rather see another Westfield or something more akin to the luxury blocks of flats to which they give consent around the borough.
We are not against improvement development—I have said myself that TfL has been responsible for running down the market over a number of years—but we want the authentic Shepherd’s Bush market to thrive and the small shopkeepers to continue to have a livelihood in the area. We believe that in Shepherd’s Bush things such as Westfield and the new developments can sit alongside traditional facilities, with the two supporting each other. This area will not benefit from the social cleansing, monochrome attitude that is so beloved, I am afraid, of the Mayor and his acolytes in town halls.
Perhaps the Minister privately agrees with a lot of what I have said. He will probably say very little in response today, but that is to be regretted. I hope that he will answer some of my questions and that we can deal with them further in correspondence. This problem is not going to go away as far as the Government are concerned. We have not been fighting this battle for six or seven years just to give in at this stage when this great injustice has been done, specifically on the direction of the Secretary of State, who has compounded the felony by overturning the decision of his own planning inspector.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Stephen Williams)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Mr Slaughter) on securing the debate and putting on record his obviously strong feelings about the compulsory purchase order of Shepherd’s Bush market and the surrounding buildings. He said that he did not expect me to be completely familiar with the stalls, shops and railway arches that he mentioned but, as a result of listening to his speech and some of the material available to me, I now know rather more about the Shepherd’s Bush area than I knew yesterday before preparing for the debate.
I indicated to the hon. Gentleman in a conversation during the earlier Division that my response would be brief. If he has any points that he wishes me to address, especially legal points, we shall certainly take note of them. We will make sure that he gets a response in writing, especially to the point he made towards the end of his speech.
The hon. Gentleman referred to the time between the inspector’s report and the Secretary of State’s decision in October. There is no time scale written down in any law or regulation for the Department to respond to an inspector’s report. The issue under discussion was particularly complex and involved a whole range of considerations, which was why Ministers took the time they did.
Mr Slaughter
I am grateful to the Minister for dealing with that point. I agree that it was a complex inquiry. It took the inspectors some four months to draw up a report, but why did it take eight months for the Minister’s colleague simply to produce a three or four-page letter that said, “I don’t agree with this”?
Stephen Williams
We will try to address that in writing. I am not privy to the exact nature of the deliberations that took place, but I do know that there were a lot of deliberations and issues to consider and, obviously, this was not the only decision in which Ministers and the Department were involved. They are involved in quite a lot of planning-related decisions, so that might be part of the reason. I can comment only on the considerations of the Secretary of State and the Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis), who is responsible for planning. Obviously, I cannot comment on the actions of the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham as the acquiring authority.
The only thing I will say, as a former councillor, group leader and member of a planning committee—I believe the hon. Member for Hammersmith has occupied similar positions—is that the issue was the subject of a planning decision and a planning agreement. Of course, they are not made on political grounds; they are made on a quasi-judicial basis, with councillors from all parties and none deciding the merits of a particular application. It is important to put that on record.
Mr Slaughter
That would be a good point were it not for the fact that the supplementary planning document was found to be unlawful by judicial review.
Stephen Williams
The hon. Gentleman has now put that point on record.
The Government believe that compulsory purchase orders are an important tool for local authorities and other public bodies to use as a means of assembling the land needed to help deliver social and economic change. As with the Shepherd’s Bush compulsory purchase order, the powers should be exercised only when there is a compelling case, in the public interest, sufficiently to justify interfering with the human rights of those who have an interest in the land. The Secretary of State and Ministers consider each case on its own merits and take a balanced view between the intentions of the acquiring authority and the concerns of those affected.
As the hon. Gentleman indicated, we are concerned today with the Shepherd’s Bush market area. The confirmed compulsory purchase order authorises the compulsory purchase of lands in the area for the purpose of facilitating the redevelopment and regeneration of the market and adjoining area to contribute towards significant social, economic and environmental improvements. A number of people objected to the proposal, but in confirming the CPO, Ministers concluded that there is a compelling case in the public interest to justify sufficiently the interference with the human rights of those affected with an interest in the land.
We found: that the purpose of the CPO—to contribute to the achievement of the promotion and improvement of the economic, social and environment well-being of the area—would be achieved; that the purpose for which the land was being compulsorily acquired was in accordance with the adopted planning framework for the area; that sufficient safeguards were in place to protect traders and shopkeepers through a series of reserved matters planning conditions, requiring the review and approval of the council, and through the section 106 agreement that can be enforced by the council to ensure that a development in line with the adopted planning framework will be delivered; and that in addition to accommodating existing traders, which is the substantial point that the hon. Gentleman made, the development and safeguards contained within schedules 15 and 16 of the section 106 agreement would encourage new operators with similar qualitative and diverse offering to establish their businesses in the area.
Mr Slaughter
The Minister mentions reserved matters, but the reality is that as far as the market is concerned, the tenancy association, which is very ably led by James Horada and Peter Wheeler, has found that the developer is trying to renege on all those obligations, and the market stallholders, who are not the subject of this debate, are having exactly the same problems under their new landlord as the shopkeepers and other owners of the sites.
Stephen Williams
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. Again, his remarks will appear on the record.
In conclusion, as I said at the outset, the hon. Gentleman’s detailed questions and observations will be addressed through correspondence by me or a colleague. Planning Ministers disagreed with the inspector’s recommendation and concluded that there was a compelling case, in the public interest, to justify the order for all the reasons I have outlined. The development will address the much-needed regeneration of the market and adjoining area.
Question put and agreed to.