Ban councillors from working as property lobbyists

Councillors are valuable to developers for who and what they know. Many have extensive networks in local government and understand the ins and outs of local decision-making.

Which is why property developers hire lobbying consultancies that employ local councillors. They can give insight into the planning process, help them win over communities and other local councillors.

Before the local elections in May 2017, there were 43 councillors in London alone that worked for communications consultancies specialising in planning, according to a Guardian investigation.

Take Andrew Smith, a Westminster City Councillor who chairs one of the borough’s planning committees. He is also lead housing and planning lobbyist for the lobbying firm, Westbourne Communications. It has lobbied for many property companies and developers in recent years,.

This isn’t a problem confined to London. Councillor-lobbyists are a feature around the country. The Conservative leader of Suffolk Council, for example, declares on his register of interests that he is an ‘associate’ of Cratus Consulting, specialists in local lobbying.

Nor is it a problem confined to Conservative councillors. Planning lobbyists, Terrapin Communications, which is run by prominent Tory-supporter Peter Bingle, recently hired  Labour councillor, Danny Hackett (Bexley). Bingle said Hackett brought with him a ‘great network across London‘. It sounds like he was hired for his Labour, local government contacts.

Lobbying firm hires Labour councillor, October 2017. Source: Public Affairs News, the industry’s trade mag and a good source of information on who’s who in lobbying.

Despite the obvious potential for a conflict of interest, councillors are not barred from offering themselves for hire to developers. Some lobbying councillors explain away potential conflicts by saying that they would never lobby for a developer in own their borough – Bingle, for instance, assures us that Hackett won’t be involved in any lobbying the firm does Bexley – but we only ever have their word for it.

This needs to change.

Ban councillors from working as property lobbyists.

Or, at the very least, councillor-lobbyists should be barred from any involvement in decisions taken by their council that relate to planning, or land and property assets.