A former Tory planning minister is being investigated over an alleged failure to declare his links to a luxury hotel development which he actively lobbied for.

MP Sir Bob Neill was employed as an advisor to the Substantia Group, a property consultant which advised on the planning bid behind the Royal Bell hotel redevelopment in Bromley.

An investigation by the Telegraph has revealed the Bromley and Chislehurst MP was paid more than £50,000 for “strategic consultancy advice”.

Sir Bob is said to have actively lobbied the council in a letter sent to its chief planning officer urging them to approve the redevelopment.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards launched an investigation in May after receiving a complaint about his role and alleged failure to declare an interest.

An additional probe by the Telegraph further revealed that Sir Bob successfully lobbied for another planning application in his constituency – also submitted by a client of Substantia – and again without declaring his paid role.

On this occasion he is said to have written directly to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and urged him to approve development of a "state-of-the-art" stadium for London's oldest football club Cray Wanderers.

Mr Khan had rejected the first planning bid in 2016 for the Flamingo Park development on the border with Kent which included a residential housing complex in Bromley because it was on green belt land.

But Sir Bob, who chairs the Commons Justice Committee, had promised to reverse the decision and six months later in December 2016 Substantia began paying him £1,000 for six hours of “strategic consultancy advice” every month.

This was declared in the MP’s register of interests as an ongoing arrangement.

The following year, Substantia – which has not been accused of any wrong doing – and the chairman of Cray Wanderers Gary Hillman, submitted a new planning bid.

Sir Bob wrote on House of Commons notepaper to Mr Khan in April 2018 saying the proposed development was “in full accordance” with the National Planning Policy Framework, which the MP had introduced during his time as planning minister for the coalition government.

But it has been alleged Sir Bob did not disclose his paid consultancy as non-executive chairman of Substantia and its links to Mr Hillman and Cray Wanderers FC.

The MP also did not disclose that PAYE Homes, another client of Substantia, was involved in the planning application.

The Code of Conduct says MPs must be “open and frank in drawing attention to any relevant interest” in all communications with public officials or public office holders.

In November 2018, the Mayor dropped his opposition to the development and referred it back to Bromley council.

Michael Paye, head of PAYE Homes, and Mr Hillman are co-directors of the company that bought the grounds for the stadium at Flamingo Park for £2.5m in May 2019.

A month later, Substantia paid Sir Bob £10,000 on top of his monthly fee, which the MP declared was for “additional strategic and corporate advice”.

Weeks later Bromley council formally approved the development.

It was during this time, Substantia was brokering the £1.6m sale of the Royal Bell hotel to its client, N Hillman & Sons, owned by the chairman of Cray Wanderers FC who was proposing a £3m development to redevelop the dilapidated building as a 50-bed hotel.

Sir Bob is said to have been directly involved in the application and days before the council met to make its final decision the MP lobbied its chief planning officer, describing the bid as “an impressive application that has my full support”.

It is alleged this letter failed to mention his paid consultancy for Substantia, its links to Mr Hillman and its role in preparing the planning documents.

The bid was successful and Tory councillors for Bromley posted on Facebook that Sir Bob’s intervention had proven influential.

Shadow minister for housing and planning, Mike Amesbury has called for the Standards Commissioner to “urgently” widen her investigation to include the football stadium development in addition to the Royal Bell scheme.

Sir Bob declined to respond to a KentOnline request for comment while the investigation was active, explaining "it would be wrong to comment at this time".

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