Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore has welcomed the decision of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, to ‘call in’ for determination  the  planning application for the National Institute for Medical Research site in Mill Hill.

 

The proposal to build 460 homes was refused by Barnet Council, but the Mayor has decided to make the determination himself as the “proposed development has potential to make an important contribution to housing and affordable housing supply”.

 

Mr Dismore said:

 

‘It is welcome to see the Mayor taking the need for affordable housing locally seriously, unlike Conservative Barnet Council or his predecessor as Mayor. Barnet’s usual obfuscation is appalling, when so many Barnet residents cannot find or afford a place to live. Barnet Conservatives do not want to provide affordable homes. They want  to make the borough unaffordable to all but the very wealthiest so as to  help them politically in elections.

 

‘Barnet are supposed to deliver 40% of all new homes as affordable, but out of the 10,459 homes given  planning consent over the last three years, only 779 were affordable-  that’s a mere 7.5% !

 

‘To do this badly can only be the result of deliberate policy decisions.’

 

The call-in letter sent by the Mayor told  Barnet Council that it was

 

“significantly under-delivering against its annualised housing completions targets and the borough’s affordable housing targets”.

 

Barnet is  also under delivering its affordable housing targets by 71% according to the London Development Database.

 

In his consideration of the application , the Mayor has stated he  intends to re-evaluate  the number of affordable homes in the scheme . He states

 

“A further viability assessment should therefore be undertaken and robustly interrogated… to further increase the affordable housing provision. All options for increasing the on-site affordable housing should also be explored, including the potential for grant funding.”

 

 

ENDS

 

Note to editors:

 

Housing under delivery in Barnet quoted by the Mayor:

 

Net completions	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	Total	Delivery
Homes target	2,254	2,254	2,349	6,858
Homes delivered	1,070	1,146	1721	3,937	43% under target
Affordable homes target	902	902	940	2744
Affordable homes del.	285	359	143	787	71% under target

Table 1: Barnet Council delivery against London Plan housing target and Core Strategy affordable housing target (source: London Development Database).

 

Net approvals	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	Total	Performance against target
Homes target	2,255	2,254	2,349	6,858
Homes consented	2,537	1,985	5,934	10,459	53% over target (+3637 units)
Affordable homes targ.	902	902	940	2744
Affordable homes consented	126	34	619	779	72% under target (-1965 units)

Table 2: Barnet Council Performance against London Plan housing target and Core Strategy affordable housing target in terms of planning approvals (source: London Development Database).