Government decision on Enfield new town set to be announced by 'end of the year'

Housing minister says local people will soon get a chance to share their views on detailed proposals for 21,000-home development at Crews Hill and Chase Park, reports James Cracknell

Matthew Pennycook speaking to a House of Lords committee

The minister leading on the government’s ‘new towns’ programme has given an update on its progress – confirming a final choice of locations will be announced before the end of the year.

Matthew Pennycook – Labour’s minister of state for housing and planning under both Sir Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham, who replaced Starmer as prime minister in July – appeared yesterday (Tuesday 1^st) in front of the House of Lords’ built environment committee to answer questions on the programme.

Pennycook revealed that nearly 3,000 people had submitted responses to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) during the spring consultation which sought people’s views on the government’s general approach to new towns and the environmental impact on proposed locations where homebuilding is set to be “accelerated”.

Crews Hill and Chase Park – comprising two large areas of Metropolitan Green Belt land in the rural north-west of Enfield borough – was shortlisted as one of the seven new town locations in March, while also being one of three “priority” locations where there are due to be “spades in the ground” by the end of the current parliament, in 2029.

Pennycook also confirmed that a final confirmed list of new town locations would be published before the end of this year – including detailed outlines of each area for the first time – prior to a second public consultation.

The Labour minister said: “In March we went out to consult on the programme as a whole, not on individual sites and the detail on individual sites, but the programme as a whole, and an SEA [strategic environmental assessment] which is a statutory requirement of the regulations.

“We sought views on that and the programme, the impact on the environment, practical methods of mitigation, monitoring, and how we will deliver. That went out. We got nearly 3,000 responses, some of them incredibly detailed.

“The consultation closed on 19^th May and we are working through all of that feedback with a view to publishing a government response in due course, publishing those environmental assessments at least before the end of the year, and then at that point we will have final locations to announce.”

Asked how the government’s new towns programme would work alongside recent updates to the government’s National Planning Policy Framework, which includes a new ‘default yes’ for residential schemes near railway stations, Pennycook said “the two will be in alignment”.

Crews Hill Station would become the centre of the 21,000-home development proposed in Enfield if it goes ahead, but a large part of the Green Belt housing allocations included in the council’s draft Enfield Local Plan – areas likely to become part of the new town – would not meet the criteria of being within “reasonable walking distance” of stations.

Local campaigners outside 10 Downing Street (from left) John West, Carol Fisk, Ian D'Souza and Vicki Pite — Local campaigners handed thousands of letters opposing the new town to 10 Downing Street this summer

At the time of the government’s spring announcement, Enfield Council was being run by a Labour administration that was wholly supportive and uncritical of the new towns programme. This was despite significant concerns being raised locally, particularly around the harm that would be caused to the Green Belt and the impact on scores of local businesses and hundreds of workers likely to be forced to relocate.

Since then, however, Enfield Labour lost their majority at the local election in May – later being replaced in office by a minority Conservative administration which took power with help from five new Green councillors who, like the Tories, were elected after making promises to “save the Green Belt”.

New council leader Alessandro Georgiou quickly moved to “formally withdraw” from the new towns programme, but his power to influence it could be significantly curtailed should – as has been strongly suggested – Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan decides to establish a mayoral development corporation that would take full planning control over the designated new town area.

Earlier this summer, Enfield North MP Feryal Clark also spoke out against elements of the new town proposed for Enfield, arguing in a piece for the Dispatch that ‘Chase Park’ – an area of farmland in World’s End that does not benefit from rail connectivity – should be entirely removed from the plans.

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