Responding to the JC, Hackney Greens said the group have “made no specific agreement to scrap the Stamford Hill Area Action Plan.”
A spokesperson pointed to chapter one of the Green manifesto, which states it will, “Work with developers to ensure sufficient housing stock for larger families, including reviewing provisions around double-dormer extensions.”
They added: “This is about recognising the need for family-sized housing in the borough, including for larger families, while any changes to planning policy would need to go through the proper democratic and planning processes. We would not pre-empt those processes, and we would approach them transparently and in line with the council’s duties around consultation, conservation, design, equalities and housing need.”
The development comes as Hackney, home to approximately 30,000 members of the Charedi community, approaches a closely watched polling day.
Zack Polanski’s eco-populist party is expected to make significant gains in the currently Labour-held council, with Zoe Garbett possibly poised to become the borough’s first Green mayor.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski gives a speech to party supporters at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist, Cardiff, Wales, May 2, 2026 (Credit: Jon Rowley/Getty Images)Getty Images
Europe’s largest Charedi community has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the Labour-run authority over its approach to planning policies prohibiting some families from expanding upwards within their homes,
A Charedi resident who attended one of the recent meetings said that vertical extensions had proved a central point of discussion with the Green Party. He described “huge frustration” with the current Labour administration over planning laws.
Another local resident suggested that Labour mayor Caroline Woodley could face defeat through a “tactical campaign” motivated by dissatisfaction with planning.
The Greens have in recent weeks been actively canvassing in Charedi neighbourhoods, a development one member of the community said had surprised him, given the community's concern about allegations of antisemitism levelled over the party.
A separate man, a Labour activist, said that between 20 and 30 per cent of households he had visited were weighing support between Labour and the Greens.
Concern has been expressed about the potential wider implications of a Green administration, given extensive allegations of antisemitic Green Party candidates across the country.
Several candidates in Hackney – home to the party’s controversial leader Zack Polanski – have drawn national attention over their remarks about Jews and Israel.
Ifhat Shaheen, a candidate in Stoke Newington, Hackney, reposted a message on X following last month’s Golders Green arson attack, that said, “Since Golders Green is now in the news, I want to take the opportunity to make people aware that the Jewish community in North London host IDF soldiers in their synagogues and raise funds for the IDF during a ‘family fun day’.”
On October 7 2023, as Hamas terrorists were attacking southern Israel, Shaheen wrote: “If you say nothing when Palestinians especially children are under attack, murdered imprisoned, buy Israel then stay quiet when Palestinians inevitably try to defend themselves.”
In another post, Shaheen – who works in the NHS and is a school governor – suggested Israel was harvesting organs “to help alter [the] DNA of Zionists to claim land, ancestry”.
Laura-Louise Fairley, standing in Hackney Downs, has called on the Greens to proscribe the Israel Defence Forces as a terrorist organisation.
Jam Anker, a candidate in Hackney Wick, reposted a video on Instagram featuring a quote from Holocaust-revisionist and antizionist writer, Norman Finkelstein, stating: “I won’t condemn H***s”.
A Hackney Green spokesperson told the JC: “We meet and engage in good faith with communities across Hackney, including Stamford Hill’s Orthodox Jewish community, as we do with residents, community groups, businesses and faith groups across the borough. That includes listening to people’s views, concerns and ideas.
“During Hanukkah, Green representatives joined a brief walk-around with members of the local Orthodox community and visited some local shops. That was a good faith engagement with local residents and businesses.”
