The deputy leader of Westminster council has stepped aside after the Guardian revealed he had received hospitality or gifts 893 times over six years, frequently from property developers seeking planning permission.

Robert Davis, who chaired the Conservative borough’s planning committee for 17 years, said on Wednesday night that he was giving up all of his roles as deputy leader and cabinet member for business, culture and heritage while the authority and an independent QC investigates his conduct.

Davis was entertained by and received gifts from property industry figures at least 150 times since the start of 2015 – a rate of almost once a week. His entertainment was paid for by some of the country’s wealthiest property developers including Gerald Ronson, Sir Stuart Lipton and Sir George Iacobescu, the chief executive of Canary Wharf Group.

Over six years he was entertained 30 times at the expense of the Westminster Property Association, whose members include many of the most powerful property developers operating in central London. Other freebies included an expenses-paid trip to the south of France and dinners at the Grosvenor House and Goring hotels in London. One property developer who has met Davis on projects on several occasions told the Guardian he was “known as God in the Westminster development world”.

He received tickets to Wimbledon finals day and the sold-out musical Hamilton, and lunches at Chiltern Firehouse and the Ritz. He accepted a two-night stay at a London hotel over New Year’s Eve 2012 and later a night at the luxury Corinthia hotel by Whitehall, less than four miles from his home in Maida Vale.

The council’s leader, Nickie Aiken, who moved him aside from planning at the beginning of 2017 also announced a separate inquiry to “look at all aspects of the decision-making process to ensure planning is, and is seen as, an independent and impartial process”.

“Our residents need reassurance that the planning process is not only impartial, but is seen to be impartial,” she said.

Davis’s announcement came just hours after the Guardian posed a series of fresh questions to him about the overlap between his planning committee role and the hospitality, and meetings he had with property companies and their agents involved in applying for planning consent.

The Labour opposition welcomed Davis’ decision to step down, claiming that the public had lost faith in the planning system partly because of the failure to build enough affordable housing, but also because of “the way in which Westminster has become a playground for the rich” and the proliferation of high-rise luxury flats.



Between 2013 and 2016 only 12% of the new homes built in Westminster were classed as “affordable”, while the target was 35%.

Davis oversaw four planning committees and chaired one himself. As he stepped aside on Wednesday night Davis insisted that he had done nothing wrong.

“Any suggestion or implication that I have done anything other than to further the interests of the city and its residents are baseless and strenuously denied,” he said, adding there had been “wrongful” assertions about his conduct.

“In 17 years as chairman of planning committees which granted hundreds of applications and resulted in the council receiving substantial sums for affordable housing, public realm and other public amenity, I have at all times acted with the independence and probity required by my role,” he said.



“My desire to rigorously declare all meetings and hospitably, regardless of its nature, underpins this transparency and independence. It is trite to confirm that within these 17 years, I have got to know many of the developers and associated professionals who work in the city and help to develop Westminster into one of the most important economic centres in the country and home to over 280,000 people.”

However one Conservative councillor said the revelations about Davis appeared to be losing the party votes ahead of May’s local elections: “I am getting doors slammed in my face. The residents are very unhappy.”

Davis had referred himself to the borough’s monitoring officer in the wake of last month’s Guardian investigation. The reports sparked anger from residents and a call from Sir Alistair Graham, a former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, for an investigation into whether the hospitality was warranted and whether any of it was linked to planning decisions made while Davis was chair of the borough’s powerful planning committee. The borough’s legal director is examining whether Davis breached the council’s code of conduct.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, who speaks for Labour on business and the public realm, said: “He has realised the seriousness of the situation and the reaction from ordinary residents has been overwhelming. There has been bewilderment and surprise that his breakfast, lunch and dinner activities have been going on so long unchecked. The review of how planning works in Westminster is long overdue. The system no longer commands people’s support and respect.”

Adam Hug, the leader of the Labour group, added: “We believe that his actions were inappropriate and the fact that he is still a councillor and will be standing for reelection in the May local elections is a matter of concern.”