Labour council pushes back against Sadiq Khan's green belt housing plan

A Labour council has pushed back against London mayor Lord Sadiq Khan’s bid to open up the green belt for more housing development.

Barnet Council has said key elements of the senior Labour politician’s London Plan, which is currently being reviewed following a public consultation, raise ”significant concerns” for the north London borough.

Lord Khan has proposed an ambition to deliver 558,000 homes over the ten-year period up to 2037, allocating targets to “each plan-making authority in London”.

Part of the draft London Plan describes how developments on green belt land could be acceptable if they meet “sustainable location tests”.

The Metropolitan Green Belt is a protected ring of countryside across Greater London that is designed to protect the capital’s urban sprawl from moving into its surrounding countries.

Barnet has been tasked with provisionally building almost 33,000 homes in the next decade, including 7,000 on green belt land.

Barnet Council has been set targets for housing on green belt land

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The mayor’s plan contains scope for sections of the green belt to be developed for “residential-led” schemes if “the vast majority” of new homes are located either “within 400m” of an eligible bus route or 1.2km – “15 minutes walk” – from a select list of railway stations.

Barnet itself was identified as having up to seven of these “well-connected train stations” near “broad locations for growth” that contain green belt land.

In a rare example of Labour in-fighting in the capital, Barnet Council said it was “principally” concerned with the mayor’s new housing target for the borough.

In a letter to the mayor from Neeru Kareer, the council’s assistant director of planning and building control, the Hendon Town Hall, which is run by a Labour minority administration, said its “principal concerns relate to the evidential basis for the proposed housing targets” and the “reliance on significant Green Belt release to achieve those targets”.

The letter, signed off by the council’s cabinet on Monday, comes after work by a cross-party joint working group including both Labour and Conservative councillors, as well as council officers.

Hendon Town Hall is run by a Labour minority administration

Every 15 or so years, each London borough council has to create a local plan which outlines the development targets, such as number of homes to be built, and how it intends to meet those targets.

The new Barnet Local Plan was adopted in March 2025.

The mayor’s London Plan, meanwhile, is a far more wide-reaching document, essentially setting out planning policy across the whole capital, in turn giving guidance for each borough council to follow when creating their own strategies for local development.

Proposed changes to green belt development policies have been a major concern for the local authority.

At the time, the local authority warned that the mayor “does not have the remit” to make direct changes to the borough’s Green Belt as part of any new London Plan.

In a statement published alongside its draft proposals in July, the mayor’s office said the draft London Plan “sets out a bold vision for the capital and is a blueprint for building a fairer, greener and more prosperous London for everyone over the next two decades”.