Reed’s £2,400-a-seat cosy curry night with building lobbyists

BARRATT HOLMES reports on the Croydon Labour councillors who enjoyed a networking night out with the housing minister

Steve Reed OBE, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North if he can ever be bothered), who has previously exhibited an appetite for generous hospitality at football matches, all paid for by the water industry (he was Labour’s lead on environmental matters at the time), has been enjoying curry dinners alongside housing and development lobbyists who happily paid £2,400 per seat.

Reed is the cabinet member in Keir Starmer’s corrupted government in charge of… housing.

Wearing ridiculous, Bob The Builder-style “Build, baby build” helmets, Reed has had his photo smeared across social media by the lobbyists, a signal that they, at least, think that they have the housing minister on their side over issues such as weakening planning rules, removing local council powers and handing property speculators greater freedoms to build on the Green Belt.

Vicky Spratt, the housing correspondent at the i newspaper, reported on the dodgy-looking corporate bash yesterday.

The dinner was organised by Labour Yimby (“Yes in my back yard”), charging £2,000 plus VAT for some seats at the fund-raising, which was trailed with housing minister Reed as the star guest.

The curry night took place at Mumbai Square restaurant in Aldgate last October.

Also in attendance were at least three Labour councillors from Croydon: deeply pompous Christopher Herman (South Norwood ward), the shadow cabinet member for streets and environment, the exceedingly ambitious Chrishni Reshekaron (West Thornton), the shadow cabinet member for homes, and Stuart King, the Labour opposition leader who just happens to be the founder of a firm of property lobbyists.

“The Labour Yimby movement marches on,” King wrote soon after posing for a pic with Reed wearing his silly hat.

“Labour’s Yimby Army were back together and assembled in full force last night as they raised funds for two frontline Kent MPs – Kevin McKenna and Naushabah Khan.”

King appeared to be quite excited by it all. “The industry’s man of the moment and Yimby-in-Chief, Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, was the event’s highly energised and enthusiastic guest speaker.” Ooo.

“There appears to be no appetite to dial down the Yimby rhetoric. Rightly so,” wrote the development industry lobbyist.

This was posted on his personal social media, where King describes himself as a founder of Quoin Partners, the PR consultancy he launched last year with Peter John, the former Southwark council leader, now a Labour peer.

Both John and King had previously worked for Terrapin Communications, the firm run by the notorious boozy luncher, Peter Bingle.

King says that Labour Yimpby “is essentially a grassroots movement that has been built from scratch by activists and councillors”.

But that’s complete bollocks.

Labour Yimby’s “financial backers include some of the country’s biggest developers”, Spratt wrote.

“Labour Yimby has been funded by a mixture of construction firms, trade bodies and large-scale property managers,” according to Spratt.

“One of its founders, Adam Allnutt, 36, is the director of a public affairs lobbying firm called TYI Group Limited (The Yimby Initiative). On its website, TYI says it offers high-level and discreet advisory’ for housing and planning development projects and lists major housebuilders among its previous clients, including Capital and Centric and Barratt Redrow.” You can see where this is going.

Spratt reports: “In the last year, Labour Yimby received two donations totalling £16,000 from the Land, Planning and Development Federation (LPDF) – which represents dozens of Britain’s biggest developers – and £25,000 from DB Symmetry Ltd, a company owned by London-based Tritax Big Box, which manages billions of pounds in properties for logistics and warehousing.

“The group also received £12,000 from Tide Construction Ltd, a developer which specialises in modular construction, and £50,000 from Griggs Homes, which sponsored another of the group’s events.”

Tickets for the curry night started at a reasonable 45 quid, but if you wanted a seat at a “corporate table with a special guest”, the i reports that that cost £2,000 a time, plus VAT. Cheap tat Bob the Builder hats came free, it is understood.

It has the look of a cash-for-access meeting from a Labour fringe group. As if Reed isn’t in enough trouble for his role in setting up another influential group within his party, Labour Together, and its own shady funding history.

Of the Labour Yimby bash, Spratt reports: “The developers stand to benefit from the government’s housing policies, particularly if Reed overrules local councils who reject their construction plans.”

Reed has already made changes to planning rules which will give him the power to force through large housing developments even if they face local opposition.

At the Labour Yimby curry night, executives at the table where Reed was pictured sitting included representatives of developers Catesby Estates and Hallam Land, who had live planning appeals with the Planning Inspectorate at the time.

“Catesby Estates also has plans to build 300 homes on the outskirts of Melksham, Wiltshire, which will be decided by Reed after an application was rejected by Wiltshire Council, in one of the first such cases since new planning rules were announced.”

Spratt dutifully reported Reed’s Ministry’s denial: “A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said no official government business or planning decisions were discussed at the event.” Of course.

The whole point of these less-formal get-togethers and networking events is that they are off-diary for ministers, not official engagements, so there are no civil servants around to keep records of what is said or discussed.

Reed, as Secretary of State at the MHCLG, has quasi-judicial powers to approve or deny planning applications.

Reed has taken up the arguments of the development lobby against the planning system, despite the many tens of thousands of schemes which have been granted planning permission but remain undeveloped, as speculators landbank property to drive their profits.

Reed has a target of building 1.5million homes during this parliament. There is no clear indication how many of these homes will be, in effect, council or housing association homes available at social rents. It is suspected that the vast majority will be private housing for private profit.

Spratt quotes Neal Hudson, an expert housing market analyst, who said, “It’s not a great look for the Secretary of State for Housing to be sitting at a table in a curry house surrounded by business people and lobbyists whose businesses will be directly affected by his decisions on planning policy.”

Reed more: Labour’s Town Hall leader joins new firm of property lobbyists

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