When the Mayor overrules Barnet: how a call-in actually works

When Barnet refuses a large housing scheme, the argument that follows usually assumes the council had the last word. Often it does not. Applications above a certain size are of potential strategic importance, which means they are referred to the Mayor of London, and the borough’s decision is provisional until City Hall has looked at it.

Two stages, not one

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The first referral happens before Barnet decides anything. Within six weeks of the application being submitted, officers at the Greater London Authority assess it and issue a Stage 1 response, setting out where the scheme conflicts with the London Plan and what changes would bring it into line. The council is not bound by that, but it is now on the record.

The second referral happens after the council has made its decision. Barnet sends the whole file to the Mayor, and from that point City Hall has 14 days. That is the window in which a refused scheme can be revived, and it is short.

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The three things the Mayor can do

The first is to let the borough’s decision stand, whether that decision was approval or refusal. This is what happens to the overwhelming majority of referred applications.

The second is to direct refusal of something Barnet approved. Note the asymmetry: this power runs one way. The Mayor cannot simply direct the council to approve a scheme it refused.

The third is to call the application in, which means the Mayor becomes the planning authority for it and decides it himself. That is the power people mean when they say City Hall has stepped in, and it is the one with conditions attached.

What a call-in has to satisfy

Under the Mayor of London Order, three tests have to be met before an application can be taken over. The development must have a significant impact on the implementation of the London Plan. Its effects must be likely to affect more than one London borough. And there must be sound planning reasons for intervening.

The second of those is the one that surprises people. A scheme entirely inside Barnet can still qualify, because effects are not confined to the site: a development next to a tube station shapes journeys made by people who live in Enfield and work in Camden. But it is a test, and it is the ground on which a call-in is most often contested.

The Mayor’s powers were extended again in 2026, with a new category of strategically important application taking effect from 11 May. Where the line now falls is a live question, and one worth checking against the current order rather than against how things worked before that date.

Objecting to the council is not objecting to the Mayor

This is the practical point, and the one most likely to cost you. The objection you sent to Barnet went into Barnet’s process. It does not automatically travel to City Hall. If an application is referred and you want the GLA to weigh what you said, you have to send it again, to the GLA case officer, after the council has decided.

Rewrite it when you do. What persuades a council committee is not what persuades the Mayor’s officers, who are assessing the scheme against the London Plan. An objection framed around loss of light to one house carries less weight there than one that identifies a specific London Plan policy the scheme breaches.

If the Mayor does call an application in, a public hearing has to be held before it is decided. Anyone can attend and watch. Speaking is not automatic, even for people who objected: you have to ask the case officer for permission in advance.