Barnet Council has joined forces with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) as a Local Leadership Partner to elevate its local business support. Through this collaboration, Barnet is embracing FSB’s five key pledges, designed to strengthen the relationship between the council and businesses:

Barnet Council has been selected as the first local authority in London to partner with the Metropolitan Police to trial a new approach to tackling serious and organised crime on the borough’s streets.

The programme, called ‘Clear, Hold, Build’, has seen council officers and residents of Colindale’s Grahame Park Estate working with the Police to identify issues, make arrests and clear it of those threatening the safety of residents.

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.

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”.

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.

Creative Communities is a Barnet Council initiative, led by the Library Service to deliver a programme of events, activities and experiences for local residents in Barnet. A wide range of exciting events are being planned and delivered for children, teens and adults. This project is part-funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

For updates on Creative Communities and information about events and activities across Barnet Libraries sign up to receive our regular newsletter for adults and newsletter for children and families or pick up a booklet from your local library.

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.

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 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 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.