LONDON will escape a controversial Tory cull that will throw key infrastructure projects in the North into chaos, it was revealed yesterday.

The capital alone will retain key cross-council powers for housing, transport and business investment when similar strategies are scrapped elsewhere.

The Northern Echo revealed last week that the Conservatives will use executive powers to axe regional spatial strategies (RSSs) within weeks of a General Election victory.

Labour immediately warned key projects – to build bridges, roads and rail links and expand ports and airports – would grind to a halt.

Now the Tories’ planning green paper has revealed that London, because of its elected mayor and assembly, will retain its “regional planning architecture”.

It follows similar Tory plans to keep the London Development Agency, while scrapping One North- East and Yorkshire Forward – although business spokesman Ken Clarke has now ordered a rethink.

Yesterday, Caroline Spelman, the Tory communities spokeswoman, declined repeated requests to speak to The Northern Echo.

Professor Alan Town send, formerly chairman of regeneration at Durham University, said: “It seems that London’s planning will be kept in working order.

“But, in the North-East, it will be like 12 different countries, with the future of investment in the hands of what the separate councils may or may not do.”

The North-East RSS was unveiled two years ago, aiming to deliver 73,000 jobs, 128,900 homes, and 3,400 hectares of land for business by 2021.

The Northern Echo fought a successful campaign, with local MPs and business leaders, to persuade ministers to abandon what were seen as crippling limits on the region’s aspirations.

What the plans will mean

YESTERDAY’S Tory green paper also pledged to:

■ Create “bottom-up” Local Plans – to be decided at neighbourhood meetings – then fed into an overall plan drawn up by local councils;

■ Reward neighbourhoods that encourage new homes and businesses by allowing them to keep money contributed by developers;

■ Ensure major infrastructure projects, such as power stations, are decided at planning inquiries, instead of by an unelected quango;

■ Encourage wind farms, by allowing councils that gave the go-ahead to keep the business rates generated for six years;

■ Strip town halls of powers to control the opening of “free schools”, to be set up by parents, charities and businesses.