Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions the Government has had with Westminster City Council on the proposal to locate the Holocaust Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens (a) before the site was announced and (b) subsequently; and on what dates those discussions were held.

Westminster City Council was first engaged in the early stages of this project, when the Holocaust Commission began exploring potential sites in 2014. In January 2016, Westminster City Council was first informed of the proposal to locate the Holocaust Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens. DCLG subsequently met planners in July 2016 to seek advice on the design competition’s planning brief; met a number of councillors in September 2016 to inform them about the launch of the design competition; and met the Council’s planners in March 2017 to seek advice on potential planning issues for the proposed development.