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Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, I shall certainly try to set the noble Baroness’s mind at rest because it is important to be clear on these things. She explained the precise position for reserved matters. On the other matters that the noble Baroness wants to clear up, we have always been clear that the Mayor should take only the decisions that are appropriate for him to take. The noble Baroness’s Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 relate to her concern that the Bill does not provide for any decisions over the subsequent approval of details required under conditions and consents, et cetera, attached to planning permissions to be delegated to the relevant borough instead of being decided by the Mayor. Let me reassure her on this point. We have provided in Clause 33, under new Section 2C, for decisions on the approval of specifically defined reserved matters related to outline planning permissions granted by the Mayor to be delegated back to the borough. But it is not necessary to do the same in relation to any subsequent approvals required by planning conditions attached to outline or full planning permissions. The wording of the individual condition will set out who will be responsible for making the subsequent decision. The wording of any planning condition attached to a planning permission is the responsibility of the decision maker. If the decision maker is the Mayor, he will take account of any conditions that the borough has asked him to impose on any permission as well as any he wishes to impose. Therefore, if the condition requires subsequent approval of a detail which is best decided at the local level, such as approval of external materials or design issues, the Mayor can specify in the wording of the condition that it is to be the borough, rather than him, that is to be responsible for dealing with that approval. This applies equally to any conditions attached to conservation area consents where approvals may be required. As I have said, we do not consider it appropriate to put in place a blanket provision that all approvals of details will be dealt with by the borough instead of the Mayor because it is right to allow discretion to the decision maker. However, we are absolutely clear that the vast majority of such decisions will be appropriate for the borough rather than the Mayor. In order to make this absolutely clear, we will put it into the circular that will accompany the new powers, which will in turn be subject to consultation.