A member and owner of Green Belt land to the west of the Ridgeway in Enfield has notified The Society of a move by Fairview New Homes Ltd to submit the land to the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment.
A Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) is a technical exercise to determine the quantity and suitability of land potentially available for housing development. It is a required part of the evidence base needed for the preparation of a Local Plan.
According to london.gov.uk land can be identified in one of five ways:
- Sites included in previous SHLAAs
- Sites allocated for development in development plans
- Sites with planning permission
- Sites identified by land owners and other interested parties through a ‘call for sites’ exercise
- Sites identified through development capacity studies undertaken by the GLA.
A letter sent to our member by Fairview New Homes and seen by The Society reveals that the house builder has submitted the member’s land under provision 4 (Call for Sites) on their behalf. This has been done without the permission or any consultation with our member. The letter says
[Fairview New Homes] consider that it [the land] does offer the potential for a substantial urban extension to Enfield yielding considerable opportunities for a mixed type and tenure development
The letter acknowledges that the land of interest to Fairview Homes is in the Green Belt. The Society is completely opposed to any development on Green Belt land that has protected the countryside and prevented urban sprawl in the northern part of Enfield for over 70 years. In February 2019 The Society, working with the Campaign for Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and Enfield Roadwatch, jointly released Space to Build 2019 in which we identified existing brown-field and underused developed land in the Borough, sufficient for 37,000 more houses.
Our member has informed us that they will not sell under any circumstances and have also informed the Council of this point.
