22 Dec 2025
Hundreds of people have backed a campaign to prevent Redbourn from being lost amidst a tidal wave of urban sprawl.
Despite the village’s current size of approximately 2,300 homes, it could see around one third of all new housing planned for the entire St Albans district built on its doorstep.
Proposals by the Lawes Agricultural Trust (LAT) – a charitable trust which owns the estates at Rothamsted in Harpenden – call for a development of more than 1,000 new homes, which will increase the size of Redbourn by 50 per cent.
The development is for a 104-acre open arable site situated on the northeast edge of the village of Redbourn, between Dunstable Road, Harpenden Lane and the Redbourn bypass.
It would see 42 hectares of Green Belt land reclassified as grey belt – which means it does not strongly contribute to the main purposes of the Green Belt – and leaves the village exposed to unchecked development.
Elsewhere, the Crown Estate is proposing to build up to 4,000 new homes on 975 acres of Green Belt between Redbourn Road and Hemel Hempstead Road, to the west of the M1, part of the even bigger Hemel Garden Communities programme.
A campaign opposing the schemes led by Redbourn Residents Group has seen an overwhelming response from villages.
Leader Nick Johnson said: “We set up an online petition calling for no more than five per cent of residents (in line with national targets). The response has been staggering – In under a week, we’ve received well over 1,000 signatures – about 20 per cent of the village.
“While our MP, Victoria Collins, and our parish and district councillors all support protecting the Green Belt, what’s incredibly concerning is they have all admitted their hands are tied.
“The reality is stark: Redbourn will merge with Hemel Hempstead and Harpenden unless national policy is changed. It’s a race between us getting the rules changed and developers forcing through approvals.
“The policy at issue is the new grey belt ruling, which allows developers to build on Green Belt land around villages. Towns and cities are protected, but villages are not. Unless this policy is reversed, councils are forced to approve developments and villages across Hertfordshire will disappear.
“SADC has expressed significant concern that villages like Redbourn, London Colney, and Sandridge are being disproportionately targeted, but local authorities say they are effectively forced to approve thousands of houses because of this Government’s policy.
“The danger for us is immediate: the village has 2,300 houses, and plans have been submitted to build at least 6,000 within two miles of the High Street. We’re surrounded on all sides by plans. The infrastructure can’t take it, the people don’t want it – but the Government is forcing it.
“We now need to make this a national issue and fight it at the highest levels of Government. We plan to join forces with other villages across the country.
“I don’t think it’s dramatic to say that we are genuinely facing the death of the village as a concept – unless this policy is reversed. The question is, can we do that before it’s too late?”
