This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request 'Consultation with Three Rivers District Council'.



 
 
 
 
Planning and Economic Development 
 
 
Claire May MSc MRTPI 
Your Reference: 
Head of Planning Policy & Projects 
Our Reference: HLP/DTC 
Three Rivers District Council 
Contact: Mark Silverman 
Three Rivers House 
Extension: 4300 
Northway 
Date: 31 January 2020 
Rickmansworth 
Herts, WD3 1RL 
  
 
Dear Ms May 
 
Hertsmere Local Plan 
 
 
Hertsmere Borough Council is currently progressing work on its own Local Plan which will cover 
the period from 2018 to 2036.  
 
As part of the duty to cooperate process, we have been actively engaging with all of our 
neighbours and stakeholders to consider how Hertsmere will meet its own identified housing and 
employment needs.  The standard national methodology for assessing housing need has resulted 
in an annual requirement of 750 homes per annum (incorporating a 5% buffer, as required by the 
NPPF) or 13,500 homes over the plan period.  By comparison, our current Local Plan which was 
adopted 2013, has an annual housing requirement of 266 homes.  That Plan is now more than 
five years old and therefore deemed to be ‘out of date’ in determining our future strategic growth 
requirements. 
 
We recognise that there is an agreement in principle to progress a joint plan for the South West 
Herts Housing Market Area, which would involve a comprehensive and comparative assessment 
of Green Belt land.  Clearly this will not be in place in time to inform our new Local Plan and there 
remains a need for Hertsmere to bring forward this new plan without delay.      
 
Following a Call for Sites, we have consulted on a Potential Sites for Housing and Employment 
document which identified and summarised the site proposals initially put forward by landowners 
and developers.  Hertsmere’s current housing and employment land capacity is considered to be 
solely that which can be developed on previously developed land and includes all sources on land 
not covered by Green Belt designation.  We also recognise that there is greater emphasis in the 
NPPF on making effective use of land (chapter 11) and maximising densities (chapter 13) as a 
preliminary requirement prior to assessing where Green Belt land might be taken and whether 
exceptional circumstances exist for doing so.   Given these requirements and to ensure that 
previously developed land is maximised, we have set out to:  
 
1) Review the housing densities and capacities of all potential sites located within major 
settlement boundaries, and applying a significant uplift in the average density of residential 
development in accordance with paragraph 123 of the NPPF.  
2) Assess the utilisation of local vacant housing stock as a source of untapped brownfield housing 
supply.  
3) Review the achievability and deliverability of Hertsmere’s own land assets.  
4) Contact owners/occupiers of major brownfields sites who have not yet submitted any of their 
land holdings.  
 
 
 



 
 
Our Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA), published in 2019, points to a 
capacity of less than 2,500 homes on previously developed land.  This includes an allowance for 
windfall development and existing commitments.  We are hopeful that around two-thirds of our 
employment requirement of over 25ha of employment can be accommodated within land which 
has previously been safeguarded for such purposes in our current Local Plan.   
 
There is therefore a very significant shortfall between the potential housing capacity of 
Hertsmere’s previously developed land and the level of identified need, as well as a clear deficit of 
land required to meet employment needs over the plan period.  As an authority with almost 80% 
of its area designated as Green Belt, we are therefore asking you whether your authority is able to 
accommodate some of the growth shortfall identified within Hertsmere.  A similar request has also 
been sent to all neighbouring authorities and other authorities within our HMA. 
 
We are intending to arrange a Duty to Co-operate workshop in due course to discuss our 
emerging plan and potential cross boundary issues arising, and will be in contact again with more 
details about this event.  In the meantime, I would be grateful for a response to this letter at the 
earliest opportunity.   
 
If you have any queries relating to the above request, please do not hesitate to get in contact. 
 
Yours sincerely 
   
 
Laura Wood 
Planning Strategy Manager