The Mayor of London has called for a refused planning proposal for 460 new homes to be reconsidered.

The application by Barratt Homes to build 460 homes on the National Institute for Medical Research site in Mill Hill was rejected by the council's planning committee in February.

But Mayor Sadiq Khan has said the development could make a contribution to the affordable housing supply across the capital.

A spokesman, the Mayor's office refused to name, said: "The Mayor is committed to increasing the delivery of the genuinely affordable homes Londoners so urgently need.

“He has decided to 'call in' this application in order to subject it to further scrutiny and determine if it is possible to increase the level of affordable housing."

Various individuals and bodies including Barratt Homes and Andrew Dismore AM welcomed the decision.

Gary Ennis, regional managing director for Barratt London and Southern, said: “The 19 hectare National Institute for Medical Research site in Mill Hill is an exceptional development opportunity which could deliver new homes and public open space that can benefit the whole of London.

“We have an excellent track record of development in Barnet and we will now await the final decision of our application by the Mayor of London.”

However, Mill Hill Neighbourhood Forum, though supporting “the principle” of 460 new homes on the site, are concerned about the timeframes, designs of buildings in the Mill Hill conservation area and levels of parking put forward in the application.

Chairman of MHNF John H Gillett said: “The Mayor’s Office are generally wholly unrealistic about car parking requirements for properties in the suburbs with a low PTAL rating.

“In the case of NIMR they argue for on average one parking space per flat but residents are most likely to own more vehicles due to the poor public transport, notably the lack of effective orbital links around north London, and hence car parking will overspill onto surrounding roads which are already heavily congested.”

Mr Gillett also spoke out about the potential for residents to be “effectively living in a building site” if they are moved in before building works are fully completed.

The mayor’s announcement also brought to a light a political discussion after Mr Dismore said the Barnet Conservatives “do not want to provide affordable homes”.

He said: “They want to make the borough unaffordable to all but the very wealthiest so as to help them politically in elections.

“Barnet are supposed to deliver 40% of all new homes as affordable, but out of the 10,459 homes given planning consent over the last three years, only 779 were affordable- that’s a mere 7.5%.

“To do this badly can only be the result of deliberate policy decisions.”

The Barnet Conservatives dispute these claims from Ms Dismore, accusing him of telling “porkies” during an electoral campaign.

Cllr Dan Thomas, Deputy Leader and chairman of the Assets, Regeneration, and Growth Committee said:

“I know Mr Dismore is disappointed he won’t have the opportunity to lose to Matthew Offord for the third time on June 8, but that’s no reason to be telling porkies during the campaign.

“We have no idea where he got his figures from. The Council hasn’t even approved that many homes over the last three years.

“However, GLA figures show we started and completed more affordable housing in 2016/17 than 18 London boroughs, and 25 in 2015/16. And across our Council Regeneration schemes, where the Council has more control, we have achieved approximately 40%.”

No time period has been put forward for the mayor’s decision on the planning application.