Hertsmere Local Plan Draft Regulation 18 Consultation Document
Chapter 17 Residential Candidate Sites
17.1 The following section of the Consultation Document sets out a schedule of potential candidate sites that could be considered for allocation for housing development through the emerging Local Plan. The Council has sought to be thorough in identifying as comprehensive list of sites as possible. This is important and necessary to ensure that the Secretary of State’s appointed Inspectors have a clear narrative of how site allocations have been selected and how they will meet needs in full. Furthermore, by providing the Regulation 18 consultation a full list of sites, those with an interest in the plan-making process will have an opportunity to comment.
17.2 For clarification, the sites identified in the Consultation Document are not site allocations. The process has sought to consider all sites that positively respond, and conform, to the emerging Local Plan’s spatial strategy. Sites that do not correspond to the spatial strategy are considered inappropriate and unsustainable.
17.3 The sites included for consideration have come forward through a variety of sources. These include sites submitted to the HELAA38 and the Call for Sites exercises, in addition to identification by the Council. The candidate sites have been subject to technical assessment, which are being published in support of the consultation under Regulation 18. That assessment process has considered the planning and site considerations that may apply. Where appropriate, the process has been informed by the Green Belt Assessment and other technical evidence base studies. The process has considered site capacity, development mix and potential yield.
38 The Hertsmere Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessments – these were undertaken during 2018 and 2024. Call for Sites exercises were undertaken during 2021, 2022 and 2024.
Borough Council
Hertsmere Local Plan Draft Regulation 18 Consultation Document
17.4 The Council has undertaken a strategic assessment of possible densities that could achieved from the candidate sites For clarification, the scale, intensity and mix of development proposed for each site responds to the requirement that the Local Plan must meet and deliver local housing needs in full during the plan period and secure a rolling five-year housing land supply. Those responding to the consultation must also consider these requirements. Consultation responses that seek to oppose possible sites must consider the implications for the spatial strategy and the consequential impact on delivering housing needs in full and maintaining a five-year housing land supply. Ideally such responses should identify alternative site opportunities that reflect the spatial strategy.
17.5 Collectively the candidate sites could deliver at least 18,493 dwellings, including the part of the new settlement, if they were all delivered during the plan period. This total must be considered against the Borough’s housing requirement, which requires the delivery of at least 16,160 new homes over the plan period for the emerging Local Plan to be found sound.
17.6 The Consultation Document is seeking your views and comments on the candidate sites. Your input forms part of the site selection process Participants are reminded that the consultation does not provide a choice between growth and no-development. The scale of growth that the emerging Local Plan must accommodate is established and cannot be reduced. In the absence of a local plan, the growth will still happen – albeit in an unplanned manner through the planning appeal process It is highlighted that current proposals are not optimising the opportunities provided by the sites coming forward. Consequently, it is likely that in an absence of a local plan, that would seek to optimally manage growth, more land will be needed to meet Hertsmere’s needs.
17.7 Consequently, consultation responses that fail to recognise this position and simply state an objection to growth across the Borough, or a particular
Hertsmere Borough Council
Hertsmere Local Plan Draft Regulation 18 Consultation Document
candidate site will be unhelpful. Such responses are unlikely to be positively considered by the Inspectors appointed to represent the Secretary of State at the Local Plan’s examination in public. Participants are encouraged to carefully consider how they respond to the candidate sites. Responses should consider how sites can be made to work as allocations; specifically what requirements, measures and interventions could be reasonably applied to secure sustainable development in a timely manner. In circumstances in which a participant believes that an objection (to the candidate site) is the only possible response, an alternative should ideally be identified.