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In June, the council’s Cabinet Members voted unanimously to make the purchase, which forms one-quarter of the council’s commitment to deliver 1,000 new affordable homes by 2026. Most of the new homes will be made available for rent starting in October 2023 with the remainder following in January 2024.

Barnet students celebrated their A-level and vocational results today (17 August), with many schools across the borough having reported achieving their best ever results. This was the first official set of exams this cohort of students sat, after GCSE examinations were cancelled in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 academic years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Barnet Council supports the recent statements released by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and London Tobacco Alliance, who are tackling misinformation about vaping by calling for responsible media coverage and sharing clinically proven and accurate information. Dr Tamara Djuretic, Joint Director of Public Health and Prevention, Barnet Council and The Royal Free London Group, and Cllr Alison Moore, Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board at Barnet Council, say:

Barnet Council has announced the launch of its Carbon Reduction Crowdfund, in partnership with community fundraising platform Spacehive, to support community groups with up to £15,000 towards local environmental initiatives across the borough. The council has secured a total of £50,000 of funding for this initiative from the Carbon Offset Fund, marking another step towards fostering a more sustainable future that will help bring the borough closer to its BarNET ZERO ambitions, for a net zero borough by 2042.

Barnet pupils are celebrating GCSE results today (24 August), with many schools reporting strong results. Over the last six years, students in Barnet have performed exceptionally well in their GCSEs, with the borough ranking third highest in the country based on Attainment 8 scores in 2021 and 2022.

Ten of Barnet’s most inspiring women and girls have been recognised in a new council-backed awards programme for their outstanding contribution and accomplishments in the fields of business, sport, environment and community and culture. The inaugural InspirationAll Awards were presented to the winners and runners-up at a packed ceremony held at Middlesex University on Friday 1 September.

A new independent report published by the Local Government Association (LGA) has praised Barnet Council for how it has “reset its relationship with residents” in the past 12 months, with a change in how decisions are made driven by the shift from a “Committee System to a ‘Strong Leader and Cabinet”.

A Barnet Council statement on the survey of Barnet’s schools for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC): Yesterday (5 September), we completed our survey of the 51 schools for which the council is responsible. We can confirm that our engineering survey teams have not found any of our schools to be affected by RAAC-related issues.

Barnet Council has banned the use of live animals as prizes for all events held on council-owned land. Councillors unanimously agreed to back the ban, raising concerns over animal welfare. The decision also supports the RSPCA's 'Pets as Prizes' campaign, which urges local authorities to ban outright the giving of live animals as prizes on their land.

The money, awarded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities as part of the national Open Digital Planning project, will be invested in pioneering new software that will automate and reduce the current amount of paperwork of planning applications. Barnet is just one of a handful of councils to have received the funding, meaning the borough’s residents will be among the first in the country to benefit from the new digital system.