Sir Sadiq Khan’s forthcoming draft new London Plan, the development blueprint for the capital for the next two decades, will identify some 10 areas of Green Belt land to be released for new housing, his deputy mayor for planning Jules Pipe said yesterday.
Speaking at this year’s London planning conference organised by leading planning barristers Landmark Chambers, Pipe (pictured) confirmed the Mayor’s significant policy shift away from unqualified protection of the Green Belt, which had been flagged in the initial consultation document for the new London Plan, issued last year.
With the first draft of the Plan scheduled to be released for public consultation next month, running through to October, the deputy mayor did not disclose the locations for potential Green Belt release. But Enfield’s Crews Hill area, already proposed for a 21,000 home New Town, was a “good example” of an appropriate site, Pipe told On London.
“We need to find space for 880,000 homes over the next 10 years, and it’s impossible to achieve that solely by redeveloping existing sites,” he said. “There isn’t enough brownfield land left to do that.”
To “minimise” loss of Green Belt land, developments should be relatively dense – “five to six storeys” – and close to existing transport hubs, he added, with Crews Hill fitting the bill, particularly if its commuter rail link into Moorgate, nationalised last month, was taken into the Transport for London Overground network. Mayor Khan told the London Assembly last week that, following meetings with ministers, he was confident the TfL takeover would be confirmed “sooner rather than later”.
The Crews Hill plan looks set to be a first test of the Mayor’s new approach, even ahead of the adoption of the new London Plan, which will face a potentially hard-fought public examination next year before going to Whitehall for approval perhaps not before 2028. Enfield’s new Conservative minority administration, formed thanks to support on the Green Belt issue from the five-strong Green Party group of councillors, has already withdrawn council backing, and this week 10 Downing Street took delivery of more than 4,000 letters from Enfield residents opposing the scheme.
But Sir Keir Starmer’s direct endorsement of the proposal earlier this month makes it increasingly likely that the site could be incorporated into a Mayoral Development Corporation, which would take over planning powers from the council. Discussions on the way forward were “continuing”, Pipe told On London. “We are not in a war with the boroughs, but we need more homes.”
Might a compromise solution come forward? Prior to the borough elections on 7 May, Enfield’s own new Local Plan, devised under the previous, Labour, administration, had been heading towards adoption envisioning 9,000 homes being built on Green Belt land in the borough. Boroughs’ Local Plans have to be in broad conformity with the Mayor’s London Plan. If the new Enfield leadership wants to go back to the drawing board, the time lag could see it subject to Khan’s new Green Belt policies, rather than his current ones.
Earlier this week, the government inspector examining Enfield’s Local Plan gave qualified support to some measure of Green Belt release, prompting new council leader Alessandro Georgiou to say on X that his conclusions would be reviewed. “This administration will continue to try and do its best to protect our fantastic Green Belt,” he said.
Follow Charles Wright on Bluesky. Photo from Greater London Authority.
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