On the fringes of north London is an area of garden centres, green spaces and winding country lanes that feel a world away from the capital’s urban sprawl. Tucked just inside the M25, Crews Hill near Enfield has been home to a cluster of horticultural businesses for decades, leading to it being nicknamed the “golden mile”.
Many of these small, family-run businesses – selling plants, fencing and paving – fear they will be closed down and forced to move if the government selects Crews Hill and nearby Chase Park as one of its next generation of new towns.
This part of Enfield’s green belt is among a dozen locations across England recommended by the new towns taskforce. The housing secretary, Steve Reed, identified Crews Hill as one of the most promising sites, alongside the village of Tempsford in Bedfordshire and Leeds South Bank.
With figures released on Wednesday showing housebuilding mired in the deepest slump since the start of the Covid pandemic, the project’s significance to Labour’s goal of building 1.5m homes during this parliament has only increased.
Across 884 hectares (2,184 acres), Crews Hill is home to just 500 people and the garden centres, and also has a golf course, hospital and railway station.
A plan to develop 21,000 homes, with a target for 50% to be affordable, would see the population balloon. Proponents say it would provide much-needed housing for families and workers in the capital and would also provide local services including shops, schools and doctors’ surgeries. There would also be improved transport links into central London, beyond the current four trains an hour at peak times, which run to Moorgate in the City.
Ministers will decide on the location of new towns this spring. The programme has been criticised by planners behind postwar new towns, including Milton Keynes, for a lack of ambition and insufficient commitment to social housing. Opponents have also raised concerns over potential strains on existing infrastructure during construction.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said they would “restore the dream of home ownership for families across the country”.
Months before a decision, Crews Hill business owners including Emma Breeze say the proposed development is already denting trade. Three Counties Garden and Leisure Buildings has sold garden sheds, workshops and summerhouses from its site at Culver garden centre since 1988, when it was set up by Breeze’s late father.
“When people come in, they say: ‘There’s a 10-year guarantee on your buildings and products, what will happen if you aren’t here?’ And I’m adamantly saying to people: ‘Nothing’s set in stone, we are still here’,” said Breeze, who started running the business in 2006.
“We don’t want to go anywhere, but if it comes to it we will be looking at moving, not closing. We’re in limbo at the moment.”
Breeze and other local traders take issue with the taskforce’s September report, which said Crews Hill offered a “unique opportunity to create a new, family-centred community” by “leading the way in releasing poor-quality green belt land for sustainable, quality development”.
“To be told you are ‘low value’ is quite horrendous,” Breeze said, sitting in a wood-panelled office next to a framed family photo. “It puts pressure on you as a business owner to try to reassure your staff when you don’t know what’s happening.”
Her views are shared by her neighbour Simon Aylward, the owner of Aylwards, a fencing trader, which occupies about half a hectare of the 2.4-hectare Culver site. Aylward’s son and niece are the third generation to work for the nearly 40-year-old business and he insists there is widespread local opposition to the plans.
“We have become part of the fabric of the local area,” Aylward said. “The fact there is a threat we could be gone, people are understandably upset and outraged. Until now our voices seem to fall on closed ears.”
While Crews Hill is now known for its garden centres, they are just the latest chapter in its long history. It is named after a local man, William Crew, who became something of a folk hero in the 18th century after shooting a gang of deer thieves at Enfield Chase, an ancient royal hunting ground.
Long before the arrival of the London orbital motorway, the site then became arable land. At the start of the 20th century, glasshouses were built to grow fresh produce and cut flowers to satisfy London appetites. As cheaper flower imports from Holland grew in popularity, the greenhouses were turned into garden centres.
The new town proposal isn’t the first time Crews Hill’s potential has been spotted to tackle a severe housing shortage. Enfield council previously proposed building 5,500 homes there, alongside 3,500 homes at Chase Park. It was seen as an advantage that one of the area’s main landowners is the London borough of Enfield, along with a small number of developers and private owners.
Some private landowners have no intention of selling up, even if they agree Enfield needs new homes. Nina Barnes says her opposition to the Crews Hill development isn’t nimbyism (not in my back yard), even though the plans would lead to new houses being built in her actual back yard.
Barnes, 50, now owns the Culver garden centre site first bought by her late father in 1973, and has always lived there.
“Why am I going to willingly sell up a successful business?” she asked. “When they say ‘nimbyism’, I’m not thinking of my back yard, I’m thinking of the people who have got mortgages to pay, who employ the staff on site. It’s a family that we’ve built around here with all these tenants. We’ve even watched their kids come along and work in their shops.”
Margo, a rescued ruby macaw, now rules the roost at the Enfield Bird Centre, first opened 40 years ago by Tony Wyllie, the father of Barnes’s current tenant Trevor.
Barnes and Wyllie are among those who think other areas in the borough – such as former industrial sites and brownfield land – would be more suitable for large-scale development.
“Enfield needs homes, but there are so many empty sites in Enfield which they have cleared but never built on,” Wyllie said over the sound of chirping and tweeting from scores of birds in cages. Barnes and other business owners are unsure whether they would be paid compensation if they are forced to move.
Enfield council’s track record of delivering housing developments, including its Meridian Water project, is criticised by many. By the end of 2025, 300 homes will have been built there, of a long-term goal of 10,000. This is behind schedule, even according to the Labour-run council’s own earlier projections.
Housing campaigners have cautiously welcomed the Crews Hill new town proposal and many believe it is better going big than planning small, scattered developments to meet Labour’s housebuilding goal, which is seen as ambitious.
A MHCLG spokesperson said: “We recognise the valuable contribution of local businesses and will work closely with communities to understand the impacts of any potential development.”
The leader of Enfield council, Ergin Erbil, said the local authority would be involved in any new town development, which was “not just about homes”. “It would also bring significant investment and improved infrastructure into the borough,” he said. The council believes construction could begin before the end of the decade.
“The work I’m trying to do in Enfield is build family-size council and affordable homes on areas such as golf courses, farms that aren’t actively farmed, inaccessible low-grade fields, some garden centres and car parks that have been mislabelled as green belt,” Erbil said.
Matt Burn, of the campaign group Better Homes for Enfield, said Crews Hill could “play a meaningful role in delivering the affordable social rental homes Enfield and London need”, even if this wouldn’t solve the current housing challenge.
He conceded Crews Hill and other green belt land should therefore be considered, but added: “We don’t think that means you need to steamroller over without any thought to current businesses.”
Better Homes for Enfield has calculated that more than 1,000 local jobs were lost when businesses at Meridian Water were closed down to make way for development, much of which has not yet taken place.
Burn wants local and national authorities to work with local businesses this time around. “These businesses are not blockers, they’re the real builders, the people who bring the money, create the jobs and you should not mark them out,” he said.
