Barnet Council denies accusation of ‘inaction and procrastination’
A developer has called on the housing ministry to intervene after being unable to find a housing association to buy 38 affordable homes on a scheme in north west London.
Chase New Homes has planning permission to build 251 new homes on the site of a PB Donoghue waste transfer station in Cricklewood.
As part of the 2023 planning permission for the site, which sits within Barnet Council’s wider Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration programme, one block of the development was designated for affordable homes.
The developer says it has undertaken a “comprehensive marketing campaign led by a specialist housing association agent” and contacted more than 30 registered providers, but that no housing association had come forward to acquire the units.
Chase claims that the only offer made, by neighbouring Brent Council, was rejected by Barnet in January “due to internal politics and conflicts with the Section 106 Agreement”.
It also said that a payment-in-lieu agreement had eventually been reached with the council at the end of August, but that there had been “no further communication” since then, meaning the scheme cannot proceed.
Barnet Council said it had engaged with the developer throughout the process and that it continues to do so. It said the proposed deal with Brent did not comply with the Section 106 agreement because it did not provide affordable housing for Barnet residents
A spokesperson for the Barnet Council denied the accusation levelled by Gary Barton, managing director of Chase New Homes, that its “constant inaction and procrastination” was stalling the scheme.
“Barnet Council has a great track record of working with developers to get affordable homes built so it is disappointing to hear Chase criticise the council for the issues it is experiencing,” said the spokesperson.
“Chase notified us in November 2024 that the housing provider they had been working with had pulled out of a deal to provide affordable housing on this site and that they were progressing a tender to obtain a new provider.
“By mid-January we had notified Chase that their new potential provider, who would offer the homes to a neighbouring council, was not acceptable to us as it did not comply with the Section 106 agreement to provide affordable housing on the site for Barnet residents.
“Since then, we have been in discussions to try and help Chase resolve this issue either by finding another provider who will allocate the homes to Barnet residents or by offering an equivalent financial contribution so that we can plough the money into homes.
Nevertheless, Barton has brought his complaint directly to the central government, asking for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government’s “support to unlock this site to ensure that the delivery of these homes are not delayed any further”.
“Government has been clear about removing blockers and cutting through the unnecessary delays that Council’s continuingly find themselves in and speeding up housing delivery, but in this case, the Local Authority is the sole blocker,” he alleged.
“Failure by councils to act is worsening the housing crisis and preventing thousands of homes from being delivered.
“We are ready to build — but we need decisions and positive actions to be made by councils to unlock growth and to get Britain building again at the level that is required to hit the targets the Government has set itself.”
>>See also: What does the collapse in section 106 demand mean for housing delivery?
Barnet’s spokesperson added: “It is important that we do all we can to secure affordable housing for residents or an appropriate level of payment if that is not possible.
“We will continue to engage with Chase, as we have been throughout, to help them try and resolve this issue.”
Section 106 agreements have increasingly been a stumbling block for housing delivery over the past couple of years, particularly in London where housing associations are often more financially constrained.
Last December, Homes England launched a ‘clearing service’ to help match buyers and sellers in a bid to tackle the issue.
Research published by the Home Builders’ Federation (HBF) from around the same time showed that more than 17,000 affordable homes were stalled due to a lack of appetite among registered providers, while a report by the publication in June showed that such agreements added 16 months to the planning process.
This month, the HBF published a new report on the crisis of housing delivery in the capital specifically, once again emphasising the lack of demand for section 106.
It called on ministers to introduce more flexible ‘cascade’ mechanisms and allowing Homes England grant funding to be used for section 106 schemes.
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