Tag: Mayor of London

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Mayor Khan’s proposed London Plan puts pressure on Barnet

view of derelict Green Belt land near Stirling Corner

Barely five years after Mayor Khan’s current London Plan came into force, he’s consulting on a new one. The good news is that it will be a lot slimmer than the present version. The bad news for Barnet is that he’s upping his target for new homes in our borough, and he’s identified places in the Green Belt where some of them could be built.

The draft new Plan was published in July and is open for comments until 15 October. Its housing target for Barnet is to build 32,730 new homes between 2028 & 2037 – a 38% increase on the present London Plan. That still won’t be enough to deliver the Labour government’s pledge of 1.5 million new homes over the lifetime of this parliament. The Mayor and other Labour politicians are increasingly keen to pull any levers that might boost housing supply.

Since brownfield sites within Barnet are limited and more expensive to build on, the Mayor wants the Council to build 7,000 homes in its Green Belt (see map below). He states a preference for using those parts of it deemed ‘Grey Belt’, which could include derelict land in Arkley such as the site illustrated above. But he acknowledges that some greenfield areas will have to be sacrificed.

On his election as MP for Chipping Barnet, Dan Thomlinson said, ‘Our green spaces and the beautiful Green Belt here in this constituency is something that I will always fight for and protect’. We hope he still keeps that promise.

The Plan would require at least 50% of new homes in the Green Belt to be ‘affordable’, or 35% in the case of schemes for 10-35 homes. (Developments of fewer than 10 homes are exempt.) These are ambitious targets, significantly higher than normally offered by developers. If they can be achieved, the Barnet Society might consider that a reasonable trade-off for the loss of some poor-quality Green Belt.

The Plan would subject any residential development in the Green Belt to conditions. Notably, the vast majority of the new homes would have to be located either within 400m of an eligible bus route or 1.2km – 15 minutes’ walk – from one of seven ‘well-connected’ rail and tube stations in Barnet. But that puts most of the constituency of Chipping Barnet in the frame, i.e. from Arkley to Hadley, and from New Barnet to Whetstone.

In addition to these seven ‘broad locations for growth’ (BLGs), the draft Plan also identifies ‘future industrial-led Green Belt candidates’ around the A1 at Borehamwood. This could include the extensive tract of land north-east of Stirling Corner (pictured at the top of this post).

Other industrial-led sites are by the M25 in Enfield, possibly associated with a 21,000-home new town at Crews Hill. That proposal is supported by the government and the Mayor of London, though – since the May local elections – no longer by Enfield Council.

The Plan also sets out strategic criteria for the construction of additional data centres across London to meet the growing demand. These are typically enormous boxes that consume large quanties of electricity and water (for cooling).

The draft London Plan makes no mention of the proposal in Barnet’s Local Plan to create a new Regional Park on the Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Space stretching between Arkley, Scratchwood and Mill Hill. Unless kept to the absolute minimum necessary for sustainable management of the Park, residential or commercial development within this zone would defeat its whole point.

You can read more about these threats and opportunities in my previous web post on the Green Belt.

Barnet Council has declared its objection to the Mayor’s proposals for housing and the Green Belt, which contradict the Local Plan that it adopted only last year. Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Homes and Regeneration, Cllr Ross Houston, said:

“Barnet Council will carefully assess the detail of the draft London Plan before submitting its formal response to the consultation and we will continue to work with residents, communities and partners to ensure any future growth delivers the homes, opportunities and neighbourhoods that people need and want to see.”

Cllr Houston, the Barnet Society would be delighted to work with you, especially on the existential threat to our Green Belt.

Above: Cllr Ross Houston speaking at a Barnet Society public meeting on housing in Barnet in 2023

You can view the draft Plan here. Tell Mayor Khan your views by doing one of the following:

– complete the online survey,
– email londonplan@london.gov.uk(External link

– write to Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, Draft London Plan, London Plan Team, Planning & Regeneration, City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, London, E16 1ZE.

The deadline for comments is 5pm on Thursday, 15 October 2026.

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High Barnet Station – Mayor’s team set to decide own planning application                      

Since Barnet Council decided in December that it was minded to refuse Barratt London’s planning application, the Mayor of London has called it in for review. A public hearing seems likely directly after the local elections on 7 May 2026. The Barnet Society & Barnet Residents Association are greatly concerned that the Mayor’s decision won’t be impartial, and has sent the letter below to our MP, Barnet Councillors and its Greater London Assembly Member.

Readers are urged to make their feelings about the planning application known to Dan Tomlinson MP at dan.tomlinson.mp@parliament.uk and Assembly Member Anne Clarke at anne.clarke@london.gov.uk

We expect candidates seeking election to Barnet Council in May in wards in and around High Barnet will be asked by residents whether they are for or against the blocks of flats being proposed on the tube station car park. For some voters this will be a critical issue.

We are hoping for a clear indication of where candidates of all parties stand. The positions to be taken by our MP and GLA member are of particular interest ahead of polling day.

Dear Dan Tomlinson, Assembly Member Anne Clarke & selected Barnet Councillors

We write on behalf of the Barnet Society & Barnet Residents Association to ask if we can count on your support at the Mayor of London’s representation hearing on this planning application. As you will know, the Mayor called in the application following Barnet Council’s decision on 8 December 2025 that it was minded to refuse it.

The date for the hearing seems likely to be directly after the local elections on 7 May 2026.

Our principal concern at this point is the clear conflict of interest since the Mayor controls Transport for London, which not only owns the site and runs the tube and bus services connecting it to our neighbourhood, but has commissioned the project and stands to profit from its construction. That is setting, writing and marking your own homework.

Although the Mayor has delegated the decision to his Deputy, Jules Pipe, conflict of interest cannot be avoided since Jules Pipe has made statements in support of this and other TfL developments. He has also expressed regret at their refusal when they could not be called in. That is not an unbiased position from which to determine the future character of Chipping Barnet.

If approved, the application will have a most harmful impact on the town and its nearby green spaces, and set a benchmark for future development in the area. Visualisations in the application were cynically manipulated to downplay its deplorable visual impact.

We’d welcome well-designed homes at an appropriate scale of development. But this proposal grossly exceeds that.

Instead, it would

  • breach many policies in Barnet’s recently-adopted Local Plan, including its tall buildings assessment for this site endorsed by the Planning Inspectorate, and make incorrect use of the Hillingdon case to justify a tall building in this location;
  • create homes of unacceptably poor safety and quality in terms of layout, detailed design and amenity;
  • provide minimal improvements to accessibility and safety that would be negated by loss of the car park;
  • exacerbate existing congestion of the set-down and pick-up area, likely causing vehicles to back up onto the busy A1000;
  • irreparably harm the identity of the neighbourhood, nearby and from afar;
  • be unsustainable by many environmental standards, contrary to the developer’s claims; and
  • offer no compensating benefits of significance by way of transport connectivity or new/improved facilities to the existing community.

Our many pages of comments on the application detailed multiple breaches of Borough, London & National policy and guidance (some of them basic matters not revealed in earlier public consultations).

In sum, the site is unsuitable for 1,000 new residents. The resulting excessive height, density and design weaknesses – and the operational difficulties that would beset residents and travellers and the public, commercial and emergency services trying to serve them – risk repeating the mistakes of postwar housing estates. That would be to the lasting cost of our community and the identity and character of Chipping Barnet.

Regards

Robin Bishop

Planning & Environment Lead, the Barnet Society

Gordon Massey

Planning Consultant, Barnet Residents Association

The planning application can be viewed on Barnet Council’s planning portal (reference no. 25/2671/FUL). The Mayor of London’s case reference is 2025/0802/S2.

On our website you can read the Barnet Society’s objections to the scheme as well as coverage of the Council’s Planning Committee decision.