Speak Up Hertfordshire!

What might some of the implications be for Hertfordshire?

This scale of growth would have fundamental implications for our county and will dictate how Hertfordshire will change over the next 25 years.

• The additional housing growth for Hertfordshire to 2031 proposed by EERA over and above that already planned is estimated to be between 30,000 and 60,000 homes. This equates to between approximately 1,500 and 3,000 hectares of land, the majority of which would be green field development, and a significant proportion requiring Green Belt land.
• The housing growth proposals equate to a number of homes roughly the size of the town of Stevenage at the lower end and twice the size of Stevenage at the upper end, equating to between approximately an additional 60,000 and 110,000 people.
• At current rates of car ownership (0.558 per head), growth could generate between an additional 31,000 and 64,000 cars owned in Hertfordshire.
• At current average daily car miles per Hertfordshire resident, the extra housing growth would generate between 640,000 and 1,170,000 additional road traffic miles per day.
• The growth would generate between an additional 30,000 and 60,000 tonnes of household waste in Hertfordshire.
• At current rates of Government expenditure, the growth would generate a requirement to invest between £420 million and £855 million extra in the county – a requirement that is not likely to be met, particularly given the credit crunch.

What is a "call for proposals" site?

The East of England Plan should not include specific sites for development - it should set growth levels to district councils who then develop local strategies to identify sites in consultation with communities.

The Plan can however, identify areas where is considers major growth should occur – this might take the form of identifying a significant settlement for major growth or even perhaps identifying locations around settlements where it feels growth would be best located.

The Assembly has already asked the house building industry and landowners for any large growth proposals they would wish to promote through the Review process. These sites are referred to as 'call for proposals' sites.

There are a range of sites proposed in Hertfordshire which are listed in the consultation document’s "sub-area profiles" section. You can also obtain details of these direct from the Assembly.