Plans to build over 20,000 new homes close to the M25 in north London have been thrown into doubt after Enfield Council pulled out of supporting the proposed New Town.

The decision follows the recent local elections, which resulted in a change of administration, with 31 Conservative, 27 Labour, and 5 Green councillors elected.

The Conservatives campaigned on a policy of blocking the development, and the council’s new leader, Cllr Alessandro Georgiou, has confirmed that the Council will no longer support proposals linked to the programme.

Cllr Georgiou said that the Council will work with the government to deliver new homes and jobs, with a renewed focus on brownfield sites, and town centre regeneration.

The proposal would have seen as many as 21,000 new homes built, linking Chase Park and Crews Hill, and had general support from the previous Enfield councillors and the GLA. Although the land is classed as Green Belt, a report into the project described it as low-value land, comprising commercial nurseries, garden centres, a golf course and lower-quality greenfield land.

The council wants to focus on more town centre developments, but brownfield sites are much more expensive to develop, which would reduce the amount of affordable housing that could be provided. Also, town centre developments aren’t that popular either, as a much smaller Edgeware development has shown.

The New Town was also part of the proposal put forward by Transport for London (TfL) to take over part of the Great Northern line, which runs through the area, and to increase train frequency to London Overground standards.

Although the council has withdrawn from the New Towns scheme, it doesn’t mean the project is dead.

Even before the New Towns designation, the area had already been earmarked for 9,000 homes, which could have been increased to 21,000 with a “new town” designation, allowing for faster development and denser housing capacity.

In essence, the New Town plan would be a tweak to planning rules to speed up development, but the development could still go ahead anyway.

That’s because, whether it’s a new town or not, it would still be up to property developers and landowners to decide whether to build homes, and they could still submit their plans to the council. Although the council is a major landowner in the area, it doesn’t own all of the land in the proposed development area.

The council can reject planning applications for new homes – if done so for legally sound reasons – but a development of this size would automatically be referred to the Mayor of London as well.

So the ultimate decision would lie with the Mayor of London.