Compensating for a once-in-a-generation Green Belt release in the London Borough of Enfield: A return to form?
Abstract
This practice paper describes how the London Borough of Enfield is seeking to deliver biodiversity, recreation and other green infrastructure benefits on areas of Green Belt to enable the delivery of a potential New Town on the urban periphery of London. The paper uses Enfield’s emerging local policy approach as a case study to explore how Green Belt policy is evolving in England. It then explores the history and context of Green Belt policy nationally and in Enfield and considers whether Enfield’s approach represents a return to the historical objectives underlying London’s Green Belt when it was established by London County Council via its 1930s loan scheme and the subsequent 1938 Green Belt (London and Home Counties) Act. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
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Author's Biography
Lachlan Anderson-Frank is a chartered town planner working as a Policy and Projects Manager at the Town and Country Planning Association, founded in 1899 by Sir Ebenezer Howard. Lachlan worked as Principal Planner at the London Borough of Enfield from July 2022 to May 2025, where he drafted the Green Belt policies in the Enfield Local Plan; before that at a local authority in Kent and in the planning consultancies Lichfields and AECOM. He holds an MSc in urban regeneration from the Bartlett School of Planning at University College London and an MA (Hons) in architecture from the University of Edinburgh. Lachlan sits on the England Policy Committee of the Royal Town Planning Institute and is also a local history guide for Open City.
