It marks the beginning of the final stage of a six-year process undertaken by Enfield Council, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Enfield Council has officially submitted its draft Local Plan to the government for examination – marking the start of the final stage of a gruelling six-year process.

The ‘Enfield Council Local Plan 2019-2041‘ documents were submitted to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government last week and, following the appointment of an inspector from the Planning Inspectorate, will undergo an independent examination.

The ‘examination in public’ will be the final step in what has been a six-year process by Enfield Council. The Local Plan, once approved, will guide local developers on where new residential homes and industrial space should be provided in the borough over the next two decades.

The upcoming examination hearing will assess whether the plan has been prepared in accordance with legal and procedural requirements, and whether it adheres to the government’s own National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Evidence set out by Enfield Council and representations made by local people in the final consultation held earlier this year, as well as from other interested parties, will all be considered.

In an email sent to consultees last week, the council’s planning team said: “Since 2018, the council has been working diligently preparing a new Local Plan to meet national and regional policy requirements and that is legally sound. 

“The Regulation 19 Enfield Local Plan was approved for publication by full council on 19th March, outlining our strategy to deliver growth and enhance our borough. 

“Since then, the council has concluded the Regulation 19 period of representation and logged over 10,000 consultation responses.”

During the consultation process the Local Plan came under fire for the proposed de-designation of areas of Green Belt land at Vicarage Farm, Crews Hill and Hadley Wood, which the council wants to set aside for residential development – with more than 9,000 homes proposed for the three sites.

Although local authorities are experiencing pressure to build housing, with Enfield also having missed its targets for several years, the proposed allocation of housing on Green Belt sites has angered local residents and opposition Conservative councillors who believe the Labour administration could do more to exhaust brownfield sites.

However, during the full council debate in March, Labour councillors claimed that brownfield sites in the borough could not provide all the housing needed and pointed out that the Local Plan proposed an increase of publicly-accessible green space.

While the new Labour-run government has said that it will be reviewing and updating the NPPF, potentially with an emphasis on building more homes on low-quality areas of the Green Belt – dubbed “grey belt” – the Enfield Local Plan was prepared and will be examined under the version of the NPPF published in December 2023 by the previous Conservative government.

Enfield Council has yet to announce the public hearing dates for the Planning Inspectorate’s examination of the Local Plan, but has confirmed sessions will be held at Enfield Civic Centre and will take place over a period of four weeks. 

At the end of the process, the inspector will write a report recommending whether or not the council can adopt the plan.

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