17 Oct 2026
The leader of St Albans district council is steering the authority in standing up to Government demands for 9,000 more new homes to be included in the new 2029 Local Plan.
Weeks after the adoption of a Local Plan which added a staggering 15,000 homes across the district, SADC boss Cllr Paul de Kort, has set out his intention to challenge the Government on their further “unreasonable” uplift in housing targets which could overwhelm local transport infrastructure.
He says meeting this 9,000-homes target could have disastrous impacts for our local area, as it fails to account for capacity constraints in local infrastructure, including roads and the Thameslink rail line.
The planned expansion of Luton Airport and the associated Universal theme park, the rail freight depot in Park Street, and the Bowman’s Cross proposal by neighbouring Hertsmere council for thousands of homes near London Colney, will all mount further pressure on Thameslink services on top of the Government’s soaring housing targets.
Not only is Thameslink already set to breach capacity within the next five years, but all trunk and local roads face the same intense pressure.
Both Network Rail and Thameslink have plans to expand capacity – through changes to the timetable, using more of the longer 12-carriage trains and infrastructure improvements in the Croydon area – all of which will require significant Government investment if they are to be delivered.
Cllr de Kort is proposing to write to the Minister of State for Housing and Planning – Matthew Pennycook MP – to alert him to the impossibility of meeting the additional target without causing a severe reduction in the area’s growth potential as unsustainable transport movement pressures cause an unacceptable decline in business productivity.
He believes the Minister has no choice but to take notice: “We are small in size compared to the Government, but our argument is strong and well made and theirs was weak from the start and looks even weaker now, as building starts falter across the country. Issuing top down targets churned out by a simplistic algorithm is failing to deliver homes, as well as being unfair and unreasonable. The Minister may choose to ignore the latter points, but he should reflect on the first one and reconsider his Government’s whole approach to housing delivery.”
In an ideal world, he would like Labour to adopt the Liberal Democrats’ policies on housing provision as it has done recently with Adult Social Care, the EU relationship, and a fair voting system.
“Specifically, until such time as there is a change of Government to one that can generate its own ideas, they need to: a) set and then properly fund a social homes build target, b) ensure developers build out homes by legislating for a ‘use it or lose it approach’ to granted planning permissions, c) recognise that debt incurred by councils in building new housing should not count against general national debt, as in the case currently in many developed economies and, most crucially, d) legislate so that new homes can only occupied once the appropriate new infrastructure – health, education, and transport is in place.”
Does he not think that if SADC’s housing targets are revised, this will create a snowball effect across the rest of the country?
“It doesn’t need to. For example, the strategic freight terminal was approved as a national asset. It would be easy to justify lopping off the 3,000-plus homes that could otherwise have been built on the site, if it had been available for inclusion in our Local Plans.
“The same argument could be made regarding Luton Airport expansion which the Government justified for its national economic impact. It is quite possible to calculate the extra road traffic it will generate, in particular along the Lower Luton Road, and adjust the top down target to account for that which would be generated by a similar number of journeys from the occupation of new homes here.
“Finally, those authorities which have undeveloped land within walking distance of a mainline train station could have their targets adjusted upwards. This district has close to no land that meets this criterion, because all such areas around St Albans and Harpenden are already densely developed.”
Together with local MPs Daisy Cooper and Victoria Collins, he said he has been in discussion with Thameslink about the capacity crisis which faces the railway line.
“They have the ability to significantly increase capacity across the whole of the line if they can persuade the Government to support the investment needed. The rail company, now merged with Network Rail, is actively encouraging local leaders along the line to lobby for this major upgrade. Indeed, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport last week to urge its consideration.”
As first highlighted by the St Albans Times in August 2024, local Liberal Democrats have been fighting against the increased housing targets for the past two years, and this is just the latest step in their campaign.
Cllr de Kort explained: “One of the reasons the Liberal Democrats pushed to submit to the Government our current Local Plan in late 2024 was because it allowed us to get a Local Plan in place, without having to address the issue of the extra hoick in housing numbers at the time.
“We hoped then, and still do now, that this would allow the Government time to see sense on this matter.”
But what happens if the Minister effectively responds along the lines of “tough, deal with it”?
“Well, he has already been tough in dealing with those neighbouring authorities who have tried to buck his system, seeking to take away their planning decision powers and reinstating housing sites of his choosing. He might, therefore, begin to recognise that the real problem lies elsewhere and he would get a better outcome in terms of actual housing delivery locally, if he allowed this district to digest the 15,000-plus house building programme outlined in our recently adopted Plan.”
