Barnet has been given the biggest housing target in London

Councillors Nicole Ereira, Raffy Lachter and Elliot Simberg say Barnet residents should respond to the Mayor of London’s consultation on housing targets for the borough

City Hall (credit GLA) and (inset) Sadiq Khan

Darlands Nature Reserve lies in the valley between Mill Hill and Totteridge. It has 80 acres of woodland, wetland and meadow, and a Georgian lake that local volunteers have spent years bringing back. It is Green Belt, and it is much of the reason we have read the Mayor of London’s draft London Plan so closely.

The Plan came out in July. Barnet’s target is 32,849 homes, the highest of any London borough. Ealing is next on 31,979, then Greenwich on 27,850, Southwark on 27,799 and Newham on 26,260. We understand the figure is about 38% above our current target, and 7,000 of the homes would go on Green Belt land.

Mill Hill needs new homes. Our own children and grandchildren are looking for somewhere to live, and we would be doing residents no favours by pretending otherwise. What we question is the way the numbers have been handed out.

Barnet has largely delivered the homes it was set. Lewisham built 23% of its 2021-24 target and its new target has been cut by 16%. Barking and Dagenham built 59% and gets a 50% cut. Greenwich built 39% and gets a 1% cut. Barnet gets the largest increase in London. The delivery figures come from Barnet Post reporting, and we have put them to the Mayor in our formal response. We find it hard to see the logic in rewarding the boroughs that fell short.

The Green Belt proposals concern us most. National policy allows boundaries to change only in exceptional circumstances, and only after every other reasonable option has been looked at properly. Brownfield land should be used first, then the lower-quality “grey belt”, and Green Belt only after that.

The mayor’s own evidence paper says that testing of individual sites has been deferred. It also says that releasing every available Green Belt site would still fall short of London’s unmet need. So residents are being asked to accept a loss of open land without being told which land, and the loss would not meet the need.

There is also the question of who all these homes are for and how they would get around. Using Barnet’s average household size, 32,849 homes means roughly 85,900 more people, a rise of around 22%. Crossrail 2 and the Bakerloo line extension are still unfunded, and the Mayor has said TfL cannot invest without a long-term funding deal from government. If you use Mill Hill East or Mill Hill Broadway, or the buses between them, you already know how much room there is to spare.

Barnet has also been given the highest requirement in London for purpose-built student accommodation, at 2,127 bedspaces, and one of the five highest allocations of older persons’ housing, at 1,170 units. Both are real needs. Putting them on top of the largest overall target in London is a lot for one borough.

Separately, the mayor is consulting on a London Small Site Design Code, and that consultation closes on 4th December. Under the draft, many small infill, backland and corner-plot schemes would be treated as acceptable in principle on design grounds. Decision-makers would be told not to ask for more on height, privacy or massing.

When working out the prevailing height of a street, an existing pitched roof counts as a storey, so a two-storey house is read as three, and a corner or backland building could go up to four. We could find no minimum garden size and no requirement to keep trees or protect biodiversity. Councillors and planning officers would have much less say over what is built next to you.

Barnet Conservatives have sent a detailed response on the Plan to the Mayor, covering the housing target, the Green Belt, parking and the Code. An independent panel of inspectors will examine the Plan in public, and we will put our case to them.

If you would like to help, please read the Small Site Design Code and respond before 4th December. And tell us what you would hate to see lost in Mill Hill, whether that is a park, a footpath or a view.

Nicole Ereira, Raffy Lachter and Elliot Simberg are Conservative councillors for Mill Hill ward

Local news needs your support

We are proud that we were at the forefront of reporting on the recent local elections. We can’t do this without the support of our readers.

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

ACT NOW!

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else. £84 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month's before anyone else.