The public back greater planning powers for the Mayor of London according to a poll published today.
In July Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced proposals to extend the powers available to the Mayor and Assembly under the 1999 Greater London Authority Act.
The proposed new powers for the Mayor include a greater ability to intervene in planning decisions prompting protests from London boroughs councils.
Asked for their views on Government plans to grant the Mayor power to approve planning “applications that have implications for the whole of London” 50% of those polled said they strongly supported (22%) or tended to support (28%) the proposed powers.
Half of those asked also said they supported the proposal to give control of public spending on affordable housing to the Mayor.
64% of those asked said they would support the Mayor intervening in a borough council’s planning decision “if an application for a new recycling plant to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites in London was refused by the borough in which the plant would be based.”
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said he was “delighted a majority of Londoners support the Government’s plans to give me the power to approve as well as reject major planning applications.”
Mr Livingstone accused some opponents to the new powers of “scaremongering and misleading comment” adding that “a recent poll commissioned by London Councils was based on a series of misleading questions, asking about general planning decisions, when there are no plans to remove these planning decisions from boroughs.”
The poll was Ipsos MORI and commissioned by the Mayor’s office.