Agenda Item No. HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL ENVIRONMENT, PLANNING AND TRANSPORT CABINET PANEL 8 FRIDAY, 30 JUNE 2017 AT 2:00PM PLANNING AND GROWTH IN HERTFORDSHIRE Report of the Chief Executive and Director of Environment Author: Paul Donovan, Team Leader Strategic Land Use (Tel: 01992 556289) Executive Member: Cllr Derrick Ashley 1. Purpose of report 1.1 To update the Panel on: • The growth and spatial strategies contained within the ten Hertfordshire Local Plans and other significant growth/regeneration initiatives, their infrastructure implications and likely costs. • The implications for the County Council’s services/functions of the new coverage of Local Plans. • How the County Council engages in growth/regeneration initiatives. • The Review of the London Plan and recent wider South East political liaison arrangements. • Recommendations of a number of Commissions that have relatively recently reported, potentially having significant implications for Hertfordshire. • Recent and ongoing work of the Leaders/Hertfordshire Infrastructure and Planning Partnership in relation to how Hertfordshire should best respond to both internal and external growth pressures. • Recent Government publications including the Housing White Paper 2. Summary 2.1 Hertfordshire is at a key point stage in setting out its proposals for longer term growth of the County – the individual local plans of the borough and district councils are at a stage where there is now nearly complete updated Local Plan coverage. Cumulatively these plans provide for 91,000 new homes and 92,000 new jobs up to 2031, and a forecast 20% increase in traffic. The Local Enterprise Partnership has also reviewed its growth strategy, though we already know the broad direction of that strategy. 2.2 Whilst the collection of new Local Plans for Hertfordshire do not fundamentally ‘change’ the County – the things that make Hertfordshire what it is are essentially maintained – the future settlement hierarchy is broadly as it currently exists and there remains a commitment to the protection afforded to the spaces between settlements and the wider countryside generally. Nevertheless, the growth agenda is substantial and there have been some significant challenges in the journey to where we are now. One of the most obvious of these is the sheer scale of new Page 1 of 26 strategic greenfield/Green Belt growth locations/sites that are required over the coming decades and the growth/regeneration challenges facing some of our settlements. A key issue for the future is whether the current spatial distribution of growth is sustainable in the longer term or whether new garden settlements/villages might be needed. 2.3 The new collection of Local Plans have considerable implications for the County Council as a service and infrastructure provider. Some of the key generic concerns have related to the lack of coordinated timeframes of local plans, the tendency for growth levels and distribution to change during the course of Plan preparation, differences in opinion relating to the level of service/infrastructure implication intelligence required to inform decision-making, the lack of recognition amongst some authorities that as a strategic infrastructure provider the County Council has to take into account wider than individual local authority growth – i.e. the collective impacts of growth on services and infrastructure. The more common specific issues tend to relate to securing commitment to provision of additional school capacity and ensuring that the impacts upon the highway network are identified and a suitable package of mitigation measures developed. 2.4 The costs of infrastructure for growth up to 2031 are estimated to amount to some £4-5bn – the equivalent of £50k for each new home. Funding for this will need to come from a range of different sources and we will need to look at innovative approaches. It will also require us to work closely with the Local Planning Authorities (LPA’s) in negotiations with developers, and develop joint arrangements on S106/ Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)/other funding mechanisms. 2.5 There are already strong signals that the Local Plans will need to be continually refreshed to address the ongoing growth agenda (economic and demographic) – both from within and external to Hertfordshire. There are a range of external contextual processes which potentially have significant implications for the County – including the commencement of a review of the London Plan, new political engagement processes for the wider South East, the findings of a variety of Commissions, the major growth and expansion of the two international airports either side of the County. The recently published Housing White Paper ‘Fixing our broken housing market’ will serve to reinforce and accelerate the growth pressures that are on the horizon. 2.6 There is an emerging debate amongst the Hertfordshire authorities about how they can work better together to bring forward growth in a way that is in a wider interest than individual local authorities, which maximises the benefits that can be secured from growth and ensures that any strategic implications can be fully accounted for, particularly in relation to infrastructure provision and securing delivery funding. 3. Recommendations 3.1 That the Panel notes the: Page 2 of 26 • Main growth and strategy messages from the new collection of Hertfordshire Local Plans. • Implications of these Local Plans for County Council’s services/functions. • Implications of these Local Plans for Traffic and Transport in the County and the need to promote a more sustainable approach to travel in future. • The likely costs of infrastructure up to 2031 that will need funding by new innovative approaches and partnership arrangements. • Emerging review of the London Plan and the wider South East political liaison arrangements. • Findings of various Commissions whose recommendations potential have implications for Hertfordshire. • The nature of the County Council’s engagement with the range of growth/regeneration process. • Need for ongoing active involvement of the County Council in the delivery of Local Plans and key projects. • Ongoing work of the Hertfordshire Infrastructure and Planning Partnership/Leaders Group in relation to how Hertfordshire might move forward and operate in a better way in dealing with growth challenges it faces and how infrastructure can be funded. 3.2 Panel is asked to take stock and reflect upon the scale of the ongoing and likely future implications for Hertfordshire and the County Council and offer any views on the ongoing work of the Leaders/Hertfordshire Infrastructure and Planning Partnership in relation to how Hertfordshire should best respond to both internal and external growth pressures. 4. Hertfordshire Local Plans – complete coverage 4.1 With the imminent publication of the last batch of Local Plans the Hertfordshire boroughs/districts have now effectively laid out how they see Hertfordshire growing in the coming 15-20 years and how that should be distributed. Some of the main components of the growth strategy include: • An indicative level of housing growth of 4,546 dwellings per annum. This compares to an annualised housing growth figure for Hertfordshire within the now redundant East of England Plan of around 4,200 per annum. It equates to an indicative housing growth figure of 91,000 dwellings for any given 20 year period (a frequently used future-looking timeframe), compared to the East of England 20-year total of 83,200 dwellings. • A proposed level of affordable housing provision consistently in the range 30-40%. • Broadly the same settlement and retail hierarchy for the County as has been maintained for some decades – there are no proposals to elevate or demote settlements from their traditional status. • A new set of strategic ‘locations/sites’ across the County, almost all of which currently involve active dialogue with developers, including: - Bishops Stortford North – 2,500 homes between 2017 and 2033. Page 3 of 26 - Bishops Stortford South – residential-led mixed use development to accommodate 750 new homes by 2027. - Land North and East of Ware – mixed use development site to accommodate 1,000 homes by 2033 (with potentially a further 500 beyond that). - Gilston Garden Town area – 10,000 homes, with 3,000 by 2033. - Land East of Stevenage – 600 homes by 2022. - Land East of Welwyn Garden City (Birchall Garden Suburb) – 2,500 homes. - Brookfield – comprehensively planned garden suburb encompassing retail, civic and leisure centre, a business campus and Brookfield Garden Village. Brookfield will be home to 5,000 people. Comprised of two separate but integrated neighbourhoods. - Brookfield Riverside (incorporating existing Brookfield Centre and Brookfield Retail Park) and Brookfield Garden Village. - Cheshunt Lakeside – new mixed use urban village to accommodate 1,000 homes. - Rosedale Park – new suburban parkland communities to accommodate 700 homes. - High Leigh Garden Village – mixed use development incorporating 500+ homes. - Park Plaza (North and West)Strategic Employment Site/Business Campus – 100,000 sq mtrs floorspace. - East Hemel Hempstead (North and South) – 2,500 homes (St Albans) - North West Harpenden – 500 dwellings - East St Albans (Oaklands) – 1,000 dwellings. - North of Baldock – 2,800 homes. - North of Letchworth – 900 homes. - North of Stevenage (Graveley) – 900 homes. - East of Hitchin – 700 homes. - North East of Great Ashby – 600 homes. - East of Luton – 2,100 homes. - North East of Welwyn