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Building more homes

High Court success

Some good news from the High Court, where the Hertfordshire County Council has been successful in its challenge to parts of the East of England Plan, which proposes building another 83,200 houses in the county before 2021, including strategic housing and Green Belt releases at Hemel Hempstead, Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City and, in addition to that, very major growth to the north of Harlow in Hertfordshire for at least 10,000 dwellings and probably significantly more.

In the county council's view, the proposals for Hemel Hempstead, Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City came forward very late in the process without an adequate assessment of the implications of growth, of potential alternative locations and a lack of any meaningful opportunity for communities to have their say. At Harlow North, the county council has always opposed growth on the basis that it is effectively a new settlement with major environmental and infrastructure implications and for which alternative locations had not been explored across the Region.

On publication of the Plan by the Government in May 2008, the county council launched a legal challenge, principally on the basis that the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Plan didn’t properly consider alternatives to the proposals for Hemel Hempstead, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City and Harlow North. St Albans City and District Council also submitted an almost identical legal challenge in relation to Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield/Welwyn Garden City.

The case was heard at the High Court in May 2009. The judge agreed with the county and St Albans councils on Hemel Hempstead, Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City, but not with the county council on Harlow North. The judge has ordered that the Government pay 80% of the county council’s costs and 50% of those of St Albans.

The court is currently considering the views of the councils and the Government on what needs to happen to the Plan to put the judgment into effect. There is also now a period of time within which the Government must decide whether to appeal the judgment and for the county council to decide whether to apply for leave to appeal.

Last updated 17 June 2009