28 Aug 2026
More than three decades since St Albans last had any semblance of a Local Plan and the final hurdles are in sight for this latest interation following approval by Government inspectors.
The Lib Dem Plan took three years to prepare and allows for the building of 15,000 new homes in the district. It follows the rejection of two previous Plans under Conservative administrations.
Now it has been recognised as sound and capable of adoption providing various modifications are completed by SADC.
In their report, Inspectors Matthew Birkinshaw and Thomas Bristow said potential sites for development had been rigorously allocated by the council: “We are satisfied that the council considered a range of sites on a consistent basis by following an adequately clear, proportionate and robust methodology.”
Their comments also suggested SADC has done everything possible to investigate brownfield sites as potential for development: “Due to the nature of the tightly drawn Green Belt boundary around existing settlements, the lack of suitable alternatives available to the council and the acuteness of housing need in St Albans, exceptional circumstances exist at a strategic level to justify altering the Green Belt boundary…
“St Albans City and District is not an area containing large swathes of brownfield land currently in the Green Belt that can be redeveloped for housing.”
Controversial developments such as those in North St Albans and Chiswell Green were also reflected in the report.
Regarding highways concerns relating to the former, they said: “In considering the soundness of the allocation we have carefully considered the suggestion that the off-site highway works specified under the approved scheme cannot be achieved due to physical constraints. The inference of this current position is that the necessary mitigation and modal shift assumptions will not be secured, and that consequently, the site is undevelopable.
“However, the Local Plan is a strategic document intended to provide an overarching policy framework for more detailed proposals to follow.”
When it comes to Chiswell Green, they said: “The strategy and reason for allocating additional land for housing in Chiswell Green is justified and appropriate. We have seen no convincing evidence to suggest that the growth proposed in the Plan, when combined with existing commitments, would be so significant to undermine the strategy or role of Chiswell Green as a medium village.
“Nor would it be disproportionate to the size, role and function of the village or the services and facilities it provides.”
SADC leader Cllr Paul de Kort said: “The most important paragraph in the report is the last one, which I quote here: ‘The council has requested that we recommend Main Modifications to make the Plan sound and capable of adoption. We conclude that the duty to cooperate has been met and that with the recommended Main Modifications set out in the Appendix to this Report, the St Albans City and District Local Plan satisfies the requirements referred to in Section 20(5)(a) of the 2004 Act and is sound.’
“The Main Modifications, whilst large in number, are slight in impact, which is why SADC could readily make them. The Plan as modified will be going forward for adoption on September 9 at a Full Council EGM.”
He added: “There is also evidence in the report that some of the sites already granted planning permission would not have to have been on that scale had the Conservatives not failed to deliver sound Plans previously. This Plan is very urgent but could not be timely enough to save some permissions, given the terrible inheritance bequeathed by the previous of Conservative administration.”
Party leaders from other political groups have offered their thoughts on the Plan and the inspectors’ report.
Greens and Independents leader Cllr Simon Grover said: “This report confirms that St Albans has run out of Green Belt to sacrifice, and yet the Local Plan asks for more of it.
“The council now has to deliver over 15,000 homes by 2041, largely through the Hemel Garden Communities scheme, land that the council’s own Green Belt Review said should not be released.
“Ministers and inspectors have overruled that evidence on the basis of wider economic benefits. Residents deserve to know that trade-off was made deliberately, not by accident.
“The inspectors have also had to strip out vague wording across dozens of policies because the council’s drafting wasn’t clear or enforceable enough. That’s a basic test any Plan should pass first time. Traffic at Junction 8 of the M1 remains a genuine risk to this scheme, and that needs sorting before a single home is built, not worked out afterwards.
“I welcome the changes that protect green spaces, secure housing for older people, and require proper infrastructure alongside new homes. But this Plan only works if the council delivers on every commitment now attached to it. Greens will be pressing for that delivery, and for real transparency on the Green Belt land being given up to achieve it.”
Labour’s Cllr Mike Hobday said: “The inspectors’ report brings the stakes for St Albans into sharp focus. Let’s be clear: nobody is denying that we desperately need new homes for the next generation, but the Plan’s overwhelming reliance on our Green Belt is deeply disturbing.
“In places like Redbourn and London Colney, the sheer scale of the proposed development and greenfield expansion goes far too hard and far too fast.
“What makes this situation even more frustrating is how long it has taken to get here. St Albans has been left without a modernised planning framework for far too long – our last fully adopted Local Plan dates all the way back to 1994! Decades of delay have left our district vulnerable, but rushing to fix a 30-year backlog by sacrificing our countryside is a trade-off local residents are rightly questioning.
“I previously said we must listen to local residents when deciding on this plan, and that commitment stands. I will be scrutinising every line of the inspectors’ conclusions, assessing the infrastructure guarantees, and listening to our community with an open mind before casting my vote at Full Council.”
Leader of the Conservative group, Cllr Matt Cowley, added: “Preparing the St Albans Local Plan is one of the most significant tasks the district council has. After seven years of dither and delay under the Lib Dems, which have managed to simultaneously deliver a housing crisis and a lack of protection for our countryside, we now have the inspectors’ view on the Local Plan.
“Our Conservative team will be scrutinising that in detail ahead of the forthcoming council meeting where the Local Plan’s adoption will be debated.”
Following the expected adoption of the existing Plan next month, work will then begin on a new planning blueprint for 2029 which reflects the Government’s major changes in assessing housing need.
St Albans district faces a 70 per cent increase in mandatory housing targets under the Government’s new Planning Policy Framework, rising to more than 23,000 new homes by 2041.
