There is a pressing need in Hertfordshire to identify enough land for residential development to meet the need of the growing population. The SHMA targets for the 10 local authorities in the county total nearly 30,000 new homes over the next five years. Under the newly published standardised approach to calculating housing need, this would rise to almost 35,000 homes. We have identified 23,300 homes in the immediate development pipeline.

Currently three local authorities, East Hertfordshire, North Hertfordshire and Stevenage, have a published housing land supply of less than five years. Our analysis, calculating housing need based on the latest SHMA figures, suggests that a further three authorities, St Albans, Three Rivers and Welwyn Hatfield also have not identified enough land for development to meet need.

The failure to allocate sites for housing leaves local authorities vulnerable to “planning by appeal”; that is, having to grant permission to potentially contentious projects at appeal as they cannot demonstrate sufficient numbers of units coming forward on other sites. It is preferable to have a defined development strategy with sites allocated through up to date local plans. There is particular sensitivity in this area due to the large amount of greenbelt land.

However, many local authorities are yet to produce an NPPF compliant local plan, and there is a need for local authorities to work together to ensure need that can’t be met in one local authority can be accommodated elsewhere. The recent joint SHMA produced by Dacorum, Hertsmere, Three Rivers and Watford is a step in the right direction.

The Local Plan process also provides an opportunity for greenbelt release in order to provide land for sustainable development.

^{Source: Savills Research}