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Communities secretary Savid Javid has put the brakes on Renzo Piano鈥檚 controversial Paddington Cube after issuing a notice preventing Westminster city council from issuing formal planning consent for the scheme.

Javid has issued an Article 31 notice to allow time for the secretary of state to consider whether the 19-storey, mixed-use scheme needs to be called in.

Article 31 directions are rarely used to intervene in planning applications and usually reserved for complex proposals which require greater scrutiny.  

A spokesman for anti-Cube campiagner Save Britain鈥檚 Heritage said: 鈥淭he decision is unusual when a call-in has been requested 鈥� it isn鈥檛 standard procedure to do so and would suggest the case is being looked at in detail. We continue to believe that this controversial application must be the subject of a public inquiry at which all the complex issues can be examined, tested and challenged.鈥�

In a letter to the council earlier this week, the Department for Communities and Local Government鈥檚 planning casework manager Lorraine Gamble said that the minister had directed the council to 鈥渘ot grant permission these applications without specific authorisation鈥�.

The letter added: 鈥淭his direction is issued to enable him [secretary of state] to consider whether he should direct under Section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 that the applications should be referred to him for determination.鈥�

Javid鈥檚 intervention comes after campaigners including Save Britain鈥檚 Heritage, the Georgian Group and the Victorian Society had raised concerns over the scheme, which lies adjacent to Paddington station and close to St Mary鈥檚 Hospital.

Historic England had also raised objections to the proposals within the Bayswater Conservation Area. Save president Marcus Binney had previously described the plans as a 鈥渧iolation鈥� of Bayswater and Brunel鈥檚 grade I listed train station, saying that it was 鈥済ratuitously overscaled鈥�.

The 拢775 million Paddington Cube scheme, which has been designed by Piano on behalf of Shard developer Seller Property Group, which declined to comment, and Great Western Developments, had been and replaced previous designs for a 72-storey 鈥楶addington Pole鈥� at the site of the former Royal Mail sorting office.

London mayor Sadiq Khan decided against calling the scheme in himself earlier this month but said issues surrounding access to St Mary鈥檚 Hospital needed to be addressed prior to the signing of section 106 agreements for the project. Following Khan鈥檚 announcement on February 6 Imperial College Healthcare highlighting that it had not been able to 鈥渞esolve long-standing concerns about the Paddington Cube development in terms of future access to St Mary鈥檚 Hospital鈥�.

The founder of Create Streets, which ran a competition last year to propose an alternative to the Paddington Pole, Nicholas Boys Smith, said: 鈥淭his is excellent news. The Paddington Cube is the wrong proposal, in the wrong place at the wrong time. No new homes, where they could be hundreds. A building which not just ignores but is contemptuous of its surroundings. Spreadsheet architecture when it should be London architecture.

鈥淎s our competition showed it is perfectly possible to develop a beautiful, street-based sympathetic development here which respects and fits in with its local surroundings 鈥� and provides more homes. The Paddington Cube is none of these things. It should be treated with the same contempt with which it treats its neighbours.鈥�