West Hendon Residents are being shafted by Barnet Council and Barratt homes

So how would you feel if you woke up one morning and you got a letter on your doorstep telling you that the Council were compulsoraly purchasing (ie giving you no choice) your flat, so that Barratt homes could knock it down and build a block of luxury flats on the site. If you then found out that you were being payed less than the market rate for the area and that you'd be unable top buy anyting else in the locality? That is exactly what has happened to residents in West Hendon who took advantage of the right to buy legislation under Margeret Thatcher.

Please watch this video as it tells the story. The Barnet Eye believes that we elect councillors to protect residents from such shenanigans, not to promote them. Barratts Homes will make an absolute fortunes from the development, whilst local people with strong connections to the area, who have paid their taxes for decades, suddenly find themselves priced out of their neighbourhood.


The Barnet Eye fully supports the campaign to protect leaseholders and other tenants. The Barnet Eye recognises that sometimes estates have to be redeveloped and that is the best option. What we don't agree with is shafting local people as a part of the process. The balance is all wrong if people who used to own their own property find themselves forced out. There are property developers knocking down properties all over Barnet and replacing them with great big blocks. The thing is that when this happens as part of a private transaction, both the seller and buyer do well. Typically a developer pays a premium as they know there is a big profit to be made. In West Hendon, Barratts and the Council are using compulsory purchase legislation to make sure the little guy loses.

The situation for tenants is even worse, with many vulnerable people being left in the lurch. We will be looking at this in our next installment on the shafting of the ordinary people of West Hendon.

There is currently an enquiry going on into what has happened. From what we hear, this is a bit of a car crash for Barratt Homes PR. If Barratt Homes PR department are reading this, I suggest they do a bit of googling of Barnet Blogger, because this scandalous injustice is high on our radar now.