London Plan housing targets and Green Belt policies criticised by Barnet Council in letter to mayor

In its official response to City Hall’s draft London Plan consultation, the council argues key elements of the proposals raise ”significant concerns for Barnet”, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Barnet Council is calling for City Hall to take a different direction on housing policy

Barnet Council has urged Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan to amend his draft London Plan – saying it raises “significant concerns”.

The comments come as part of the council’s formal response to Khan’s proposals, agreed at a meeting of the local authority’s cabinet on Monday (14th).

In a report, the Labour-led administration said it supports the London mayor’s “overall objective of delivering sustainable growth and addressing London’s housing needs”.

However, it also believes key elements of the proposals raise ”significant concerns for Barnet”.

Every 15 or so years, each London borough council has to create a local plan which outlines the development targets, such as number of homes to be built, and how it intends to meet those targets. The new Barnet Local Plan was adopted in March 2025.

The mayor’s London Plan, meanwhile, is a far more wide-reaching document, essentially setting out planning policy across the whole capital, in turn giving guidance for each borough council to follow when creating their own strategies for local development.

Responding to the latest draft of these plans, Barnet Council said it was “principally” concerned with the mayor’s new housing target for the borough.

This is on top of what it sees as a “reliance on Green Belt release, infrastructure capacity, affordable housing delivery, transport impacts and the need for greater local flexibility to be able to deliver to the needs of Barnet residents”.

The letter to the mayor is formally signed off by Neeru Kareer, the council’s assistant director of planning and building control, but its arguments are the result of months of work between officers and councillors.

In the concluding remarks of the ‘covering letter’ of its official response, the local authority said it had shown that it “supports the objective of sustainable growth across London” while also highlighting “where the Draft London Plan would benefit from further refinement”.

Summarising this view, the council argued that “further work is required to strengthen the evidence base for housing delivery, infrastructure provision and the proposed approach to Green Belt release”.

Proposed changes to Green Belt development policies have remained a consistent and major concern of the local authority.

Indeed, initial pushback from the council on the issue came shortly after the publication of the draft proposals in July.

At the time, the local authority warned that the mayor “does not have the remit” to make direct changes to the borough’s Green Belt as part of any new London Plan.

Part of the draft London Plan describes how developments on Green Belt land could be acceptable if they meet “sustainable location tests”.

It also contains scope for sections of the Metropolitan Green Belt to be developed for “residential-led” schemes if “the vast majority” of new homes are located either “within 400m” of an eligible bus route or 1.2km – “15 minutes walk” – from a select list of railway stations

Barnet itself was identified as having up to seven of these “well-connected train stations” near “broad locations for growth” that contain Green Belt land.

In a statement published alongside its draft proposals in July, the mayor’s office said the draft London Plan “sets out a bold vision for the capital and is a blueprint for building a fairer, greener and more prosperous London for everyone over the next two decades”.

Following Monday’s decision, the council’s response will now be sent to the Greater London Authority, with a final ‘extended deadline’ penned in for next Friday (23rd).

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