The revised version of the borough’s Local Plan looks set to raise the number of homes allocated to Enfield’s Green Belt from 6,430 to over 9,000, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Enfield Council’s housing target in its Local Plan is set to be inflated from 25,000 to 35,000 – with suggestions at least 9,000 will now be allocated to the Green Belt.

The new Local Plan is currently being revised before a fresh round of consultation starts next month. It includes proposals to release around 13% of the borough’s Green Belt land for development, including large sites at Crews Hill and Vicarage Farm in World’s End.

The original version of the document was designed to deliver 25,000 homes across the borough up to 2039. But the new version, which will be examined by a planning inspector, significantly increases the housing target to 35,000 homes up to 2041.

The Green Belt covers around a third of Enfield borough and currently protects previously undeveloped land from being built on. Under policies set out in the London Plan, which was approved in 2021, de-designating the Green Belt is only justified in “exceptional circumstances”.

Commenting on the council’s plans in 2021, London mayor Sadiq Khan branded them “unjustified” and “premature”.

When questioned on the issue at a meeting last night (Wednesday 1st), Brett Leahy, the council’s director of planning and growth, said the Local Plan involved balancing various elements, including housing need, employment and economic growth.

He added: “We know that our current Local Plan is out-of-date and not fit for purpose because it fails the four statutory housing tests. The consequence of that is the London Plan [finalised in 2021] is also out-of-date and not fit for purpose because it fails the four statutory housing tests as set by government.”

Brett, who was speaking during a meeting of the council’s regeneration and economic development scrutiny panel, insisted urban sites alone could not deliver the number of homes, affordable units and family-sized houses needed by the borough’s residents.

Council leader Nesil Caliskan said that while the London Plan was “really critical”, the authority also had to “work within the framework of national requirements”. She added that ultimately a “national [planning] inspector” would “determine whether our draft Local Plan is adequate or not”.

Under further questioning from panel members, Brett revealed the new plans for Crews Hill involve building 5,500 homes on a 270-hectare site. He added that 50% of the site would be developed, with the rest being made up of open space.

Vicarage Farm, dubbed ‘Chase Park’ in the draft Local Plan, is set to deliver 3,765 homes over 167 hectares, he added, although landowner Comer Homes has itself suggested building 5,000 there.

This would mean more than 9,000 being allocated to the Green Belt by the Local Plan in total, up from 6,430 in the previous version of the draft from two years ago.

These numbers will be confirmed when the revised Local Plan is published next month.

Brett told councillors that building on Green Belt sites would allow for greater provision of family homes. He said 37% of homes at Crews Hill would be three-bedroom and 16% would be four-bedroom, with a target of providing 50% affordable housing across the whole scheme.

The council received 7,267 responses to a public consultation on the Local Plan. Conservative panel members asked for the numbers who were for and against building on the Green Belt but were told a breakdown was not available because it was “not a yes-or-no-type question”.

May Hope, the council’s placemaking manager, revealed there are plans to “enhance and improve access to the northern part of the borough” and to encourage “development for recreational uses and leisure activities”.

Money raised from housing schemes would be used to fund the projects, which could include local food production, forestry initiatives, landscape restoration projects, eco-tourism, sporting opportunities, natural burial grounds, and education and recreational pursuits.

But council chiefs denied there were plans to reduce the amount of farmland in the borough in favour of other land uses and said initiatives such as tree-planting could take place alongside farming.

Under further questioning from Conservative panel members, the council leader refused to accept that removing a percentage of green space for development would lead to an “overall reduction”. She said the housing would not be “private estates”, and some would be built on land currently occupied by businesses such as garden centres.

Cllr Caliskan said one of the reasons why delivering a Local Plan for Enfield is so challenging is that it has “the most amount of Green Belt in London but also one of the highest amounts of strategic industrial land (SIL)”.

SIL is protected by the London Plan, and council bosses said any that was lost to housing development would have to be reprovided elsewhere in the borough.

The next version of the Local Plan, the so-called Regulation 19 document, is set to be published on 6th December. Residents and councillors will have twelve weeks to examine it before it is debated during a full council meeting on 6th March.

If approved, it will then undergo a six-week consultation period ending on 17th April, before preparation for its formal examination begins in May.

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