Introduction

The London Borough of Barnet was formed in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963. The Borough covers 33.5 square miles and has a population of 331,522 (Office of National Statistics, 2008). This is the second largest population of the 33 London boroughs. Barnet’s population has risen at a steady rate and is likely to rise even faster over the next decade.

 

Barnet has the largest Chinese population of any London borough, and ranks 5th by percentage of Chinese people. The borough has the highest percentage (14.8%) of Jewish residents of any local government area in the United Kingdom.
.

In 2009, the authority started to introduce a new model of local government delivery in the borough, called 'Future Shape'. The first stages of 'Future Shape' were agreed by the Council's Cabinet in July 2009. The scheme has been dubbed "easyCouncil" because of its similarity to EasyJet's business model.

Barnet is ranked 128 out of 354 local authorities in England in terms of average deprivation. (Where 1 is most deprived). There are 210 Super Output Areas (SOAs) in Barnet, and 6 of those are in the top 10% most deprived.

As of December 2009 it had 233,839 registered voters. The Council is Conservative run and the official opposition is Labour. Elections are held every 4 years and are due this year on 6 May. During the course of this booklet we will try to explain how the powers and responsibilities that affect the borough are distributed; how democratic structures work and can be accessed; and provide you with other useful information.