3,628 new homes proposed across Welwyn Hatfield

The borough council’s Cabinet Planning Panel will meet next week (Thursday, September 3) to consider the proposed development sites, and decide whether the plan will continue to advance.

All boroughs and districts are required to maintain an up-to-date Local Plan, which sets the blueprint for development – including both homes and infrastructure – in an area.

Areas that fail to maintain an up-to-date Local Plan risk having planning powers taken away from them and losing influence over development in the area.

The sites for 3,628 new homes in Welwyn Hatfield that look set to be added to the new Local Plan include:

• 425 on land south of Coopers Lane Road, on the eastern edge of Potters Bar
• 400 at Leggatts Park, to the north of Potters Bar
• 350 on land north of Northaw Road East, on the southern edge of Cuffley
• 325 on land southeast of Welwyn Garden City, next to the A414
• 300 in Hatfield town centre
• 280 at The Ridgeway, on the western edge of Cuffley
• 185 at Potterells Farm near Brookmans Park
• 170 at Campus North in Welwyn Garden City
• 155 on land west of Bluebridge Road, on the southern edge of Brookmans Park
• 150 on land north of Bradmore Way, on the northern edge of Brookmans Park
• 135 at White Hill in Welwyn
• 125 on land to the southeast of King George V playing fields, on the southern edge of Cuffley
• 95 at the Caravan Club and Cricket in Ascots Lane in Welwyn Garden City

The new sites for 3,628 homes would join the existing sites for 6,988 homes that are already allocated for development, and a further 1,132 homes that already have planning permission or other planning commitments.

Welwyn Hatfield has a government-set housing target of 822 homes a year, meaning the council needs to find sites for 14,796 homes over the Local Plan period up to 2043.

Of all homes that are planned or allocated, there are 4,428 in Welwyn Garden City, 2,978 in Hatfield, 1,119 in Cuffley, 981 in Brookmans Park, 585 in Little Heath, 425 in Potters Bar, 350 in Welham Green, 284 in Welwyn and 211 in Woolmer Green.

A council report said the aim is to “focus the majority of development within Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield,” and warned that if the Local Plan was not implemented, it would “not remove the requirement for future housing growth to be accommodated”.

Rose Grewal, leader of the council, said the Local Plan will give “residents, businesses and investors greater certainty about how our borough will grow and develop in the years ahead”.

She said it is “important that Welwyn Hatfield sets out its vision for how the borough should evolve and establishes a policy framework that ensures new development is directed to sustainable locations, is of high design quality, respects the character and sense of place of our neighbourhoods, and is underpinned by the necessary infrastructure requirements”.

If the draft Plan is backed by the Cabinet Planning Panel next Thursday, it will then need to be signed off by the Cabinet (Tuesday, September 8) and by a meeting of full council (Wednesday, September 16)

It would then proceed to a six-week Regulation 19 technical consultation, which is legally required before the plan can be submitted to the government for approval.

An earlier Regulation 18 consultation, which included a range of possible development sites, was carried out earlier this year.

The council’s aim is for the plan to be submitted to the government by the end of the year, with a view to its formal adoption in 2027 or 2028.

Welwyn Hatfield’s existing Local Plan was adopted in October 2023 after gaining approval from the national planning inspector.

It included a commitment from the council to begin a review of the Plan no later than October 2024.

Councillors agreed to carry out a “full review”, meaning a new Local Plan, rather than a partial review.