Cash-strapped Barnet Council admits sale of land to private developer is about finding a “way forward” for redeveloping site, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Previous plans for new housing at Avion Cresent (credit Places for Barnet)

Barnet Council has agreed to sell-off land so that a private developer can build homes, citing budgetary constraints.

At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday (24th) councillors agreed to sell land at Park House in High Road and Avion Crescent, Colindale, to a private development partner.

It will enable the council to save money while still delivering housing.

The land will be sold as a freehold to private developers London Placemaking Group Limited (LPG).

In the case of Avion Cresent, LPG is expected to grant a 125-year lease back to Barnet Council so it can retain a previously-awarded Greater London Authority (GLA) grant to help deliver on plans for 125 affordable homes at the site.

The decision means that future costs – and potential profits – that arise from the developments will no longer impact the local authority’s finances.

The decision also means ‘Places for Barnet’, the council’s limited liability partnership (LLP), will be dissolved so the private developers can take over the projects.

Speaking ahead of the decision, a council officer said the need to provide affordable accommodation in Barnet combined with the financial difficulties faced by the local authority means “doing nothing with council land that can be developed is not an option”.

The decision, he said, “minimises [the cost] to the council and maximises the benefit to the community”.

The sale is dependent on the condition that LPG honours a commitment to deliver affordable homes at the sites. The firm must also deliver a replacement facility for Trinity Church at Avion Crescent and support a replacement for the nursery at Park House, which will have to close.

The selling price of the council-owned land will be determined by two independent ‘red book’ valuations for each site. These valuations will be commissioned by Barnet Council.

Places for Barnet was established by the local authority in August 2024 following a vote the previous year. Its aim was to work with private developers to deliver new homes, including affordable homes, as well as community facilities on council-owned land.

LPG is a private limited company based in Covent Garden. On its website, the company says its “architecture-led developments create projects that would otherwise not be capable of funding genuinely affordable housing and services”.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s decision, council leader Barry Rawlings said: “The reason for it is the change of circumstances and this seems the best way forward to ensure that work happens, that social housing is built – and we don’t just have a lot of empty sites with nothing happening.

“This is about a way forward.”

Cllr Rawlings also pointed out that any development on the land would still have to gain approval from the local authority’s planning committee.

The council’s partnership with LPG has been one of several controversies surrounding developments proposed by Places for Barnet.

The council-owned LLC, in partnership between with LPG, previously unveiled plans to build ten homes on another site in Manor Park Road, despite the fact that it had been removed from the council’s Local Plan when a planning inspector said its inclusion was “not justified and should be deleted”.

The plans were dropped last year following opposition from local residents and The Finchley Society as well as criticism from opposition Conservative councillors.

The council agreed to re-run its due diligence on LPG, formerly known as Kuropatwa Group, following its name change.

In response to questions on why the company had been chosen as a partner in preference to other bidders following meetings in 2022, the local authority admitted it had failed to keep hold of the relevant information.

It added: “We recognise that we have not met the standards we would expect in terms of digital record keeping and have taken steps to ensure that this does not happen in the future.”

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