Nine new homes planned for site of derelict bungalow in Bush Hill Park

Developer claims “residential intensification” scheme will help tackle borough’s housing shortage, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

The Village Road plans (credit MJP Planning Limited)

Enfield Council’s “inability” to demonstrate sufficient housing supply in the borough will be tackled by new homes proposed for Bush Hill Park, a developer has claimed.

The comments were made as part of an application to build nine new homes in Village Road, submitted to the council last month.

The scheme, put forward by MJP Planning on behalf of Westfields Homes Limited, would see a large, derelict bungalow demolished and replaced with nine, four-bedroom “family homes” to be sold on the open market.

The three-storey homes would be complemented by nine parking spaces on the site as well as two electric vehicle charging points and 18 cycling spaces.

In a statement submitted as part of the application, MJP Planning said the terraced homes would represent “a design-led and sustainable form of residential intensification” which will make a “meaningful contribution” towards Enfield’s housing supply.

The Teddington-based planning consultancy argued that the scheme was “particularly important given the council’s current housing delivery position”.

This, they said, includes the local authority’s “inability to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply and latest Housing Delivery Test underperformance”.

During the public examination of Enfield Council’s Local Plan in January last year the local authority admitted it probably wouldn’t be able to meet its London Plan housing targets for the rest of the decade.

Speaking at the time, the council’s principal planner acknowledged that it was likely that only 9,250 of the 12,460 homes meant to be built by 2029 as part of Enfield’s London Plan housing allocation would be delivered on time.

These difficulties have been used to justify the government’s plans to build a 21,000 ‘new town’ on Green Belt land in the north of the borough.

But the future of these controversial proposals is now uncertain after a new minority Conservative administration came to power at the end of May, following the local election.

New council leader Alessandro Georgiou has taken the opposite view to the outgoing Labour-led administration, vowing to stop the new town and protect the borough’s Green Belt.

MJP Planning company says its proposals for the Village Road site have been “carefully refined in direct response to officer feedback relating to matters such as layout, form, residential relationships, landscaping and access arrangements”.

They added that the development would deliver “a high-quality residential environment” at the same time as maintaining the “verdant character” of the site, including a protected monkey puzzle tree.

No decision has been made regarding the plans. If approved, the redevelopment is scheduled to be completed by September 2028.

More information on the scheme can be found via the council’s planning portal using reference number 26/01932/FUL.

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