Boris Johnson u-turns on planning delegation

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Mayor of London Boris Johnson has dumped plans to delegate his planning powers and told the London Assembly he now intends to personally handle development decisions from September.

Under questioning by the Assembly's planning and spatial development committee, the Mayor's senior planning officials Sir Simon Milton and Ian Clement revealed planning decisions would only be delegated to Sir Simon if the Mayor was "unavailable or conflicted".

Sir Simon, who was yesterday nominated by Mr Johnson to take up the post of deputy mayor for policy and planning, told the committee his role will encompass oversight of housing, planning, the environment and waste policy, although special advisers will still be appointed for housing and the environment.

Committee chair Nicky Gavron described the decision as "appropriate".