The Greater London Authority Act received Royal Assent on 23 October, 2007, and came into force on the 6 April, 2008. It significantly increases the Mayor’s powers, giving him the power to determine planning applications of ‘potential strategic importance’ in London.
In theory, developers may now find that it will be the Mayor of London determining their major application rather than the local planning authority. However, since the election of Boris Johnson as London’s Mayor, there are already indications that Johnson intends to be less interventionist than his predecessor Ken Livingstone was in exercising his powers. Although Livingstone used his powers to direct a refusal on fewer than 4% of applications, he made frequent and widespread use of the threat of refusal to secure the London Plan’s objectives, in particular affordable housing.
