St Albans planning: 15,045 homes, 1994 plan still in force

The Local Plan that governs planning decisions in St Albans district was adopted on 30 November 1994. The council calls it “one of the oldest in the country” on its own website, and it is right. Everything below is about the plan meant to replace it, which has been in examination for twenty months and is now sitting on two planning inspectors’ desks.

The replacement would allow 15,045 new homes across the district between 2024 and 2041, and it would take twelve sites out of the Green Belt to do it. As of 17 July 2026 the inspectors are writing their final report, and the council says it cannot give an estimate of when it will arrive.

Where the Local Plan has got to

The inspectors are Matthew Birkinshaw and Thomas Bristow. Their January letter made clear they had not reached final conclusions, and set out where they still needed modifications, particularly on the Green Belt boundary around the Hemel Hempstead sites, where the council had proposed following a line of overhead power lines. National policy asks for boundaries drawn on features that are “readily recognisable and likely to be permanent”, and pylons did not obviously qualify.

Because a Main Modifications consultation has been held, the emerging plan now carries significant weight in planning decisions even though it has not been adopted. That matters more than it sounds: it is why applications on sites the plan proposes to allocate are being determined now, before adoption.

The numbers the plan is built on

That last row is the one to sit with. The council’s own note to the inspectors in February 2026 puts average completions across 2024/25 and 2025/26 at 345 homes a year on one measure and 360 on another, against a requirement of 885. The requirement is stepped deliberately so that the early years ask for less, and on that basis the council calculates a five-year housing land supply of 5.12 years on adoption, from 3,777 expected homes against a stepped requirement of 615 a year plus a 20% buffer.

The Green Belt releases

Over 81% of St Albans district is Green Belt, some 13,141 hectares, which is the central fact of planning here. The plan identifies twelve Strategic Allocations, described as “areas of significant urban extension”, and takes them out of the Green Belt.

Three of the four largest sites are at Hemel Hempstead, on the far western edge of the district, and they are not really St Albans schemes at all. They are the St Albans share of Hemel Garden Communities, a joint programme with Dacorum Borough Council. Together the growth areas north and east of Hemel are expected to deliver up to 11,000 homes and 10,000 jobs by 2050 across both councils, with around 4,000 of those jobs at the Hertfordshire Innovation Quarter. Within St Albans district the plan commits to at least 4,300 homes by 2041 and 5,500 by 2050.

Those Hemel policies, H1 to H4, are expected to supply about 40% of the district’s whole housing requirement and about 59% of its new employment land. If they slip, the plan slips.

The sites that will feel most local are North St Albans (1,168 homes), East St Albans (511 homes, with a six-form-entry secondary school and improvements to Oaklands College), North East Harpenden (738), West Redbourn (594) and West of London Colney (324).

The applications already in

Five major schemes are live and the council has given each of them its own documents page because the files are too big for the normal portal. All five sit on land the emerging plan proposes to allocate.

The grey belt test at Sandridge

The application worth watching is not on that list. On 3 August 2026 the Development Management Committee heard 5/2025/1556/SSM, an outline application by ACRE SA Ltd and The Salvation Army Trustee Company for around 84 homes on land rear of Shottfield Close, Sandridge. The site is in the Metropolitan Green Belt and it is not allocated in the emerging Local Plan.

Officers recommended approval anyway. Their report concludes that the land “constitute[s] ‘grey belt’ as defined in the NPPF December 2024” and meets the Golden Rules in paragraph 155, which means the usual Green Belt objection does not apply. Objectors, including on Green Belt openness and on the grey belt classification itself, argued the opposite. The committee also heard 5/2025/1469/MIND, nine homes at The Crooked Billet, 88 High Street, Colney Heath.

Whichever way that went, the principle is the point. If unallocated Green Belt fields in the villages can be approved as grey belt while the Local Plan is still being written, the twelve allocations stop being the ceiling on where building happens.

What the ordinary week looks like

The strategic sites take the headlines; the register does the work. In the week ending 7 August 2026 the council registered 31 new applications and issued 35 decisions. Those included 19 conditional permissions, six certificates of lawfulness approved and three refused, and two withdrawn applications. Not one application for planning permission was refused that week. Batchwood, Marshalswick East and Jersey Farm, Redbourn and St Peters had three new applications each, and the four Harpenden wards eight between them.

The council’s planning department spent a year in the government’s bad books over this. It was designated in March 2024 for deciding only 68.2% of non-major applications on time, below the 70% threshold. After a service review and new software the rate reached 84.9% and the designation was lifted in June 2025; the council reported 89% by December 2025. Statutory planning fees rose 3.8% on 1 April 2026.

The council that adopts this plan will not exist for long

On 16 July 2026 the government confirmed that Hertfordshire will be reorganised into four unitary councils. St Albans City and District Council will be abolished and merged with Dacorum Borough Council into a new authority called West Hertfordshire, with elections in May 2027 and the new council starting on 1 April 2028.

Read that against the plan and it is not a coincidence. Dacorum is the council St Albans already shares Hemel Garden Communities with, and Hemel supplies about 40% of the St Albans housing requirement. From 2028 both sides of that programme sit inside one authority.

The council leader, Cllr Paul de Kort, said the government had “chosen to ignore its own guidance surrounding population size and boundary consistency” and warned about services and council tax. That objection is on the record; the merger is happening regardless.

How to check an application yourself

The council’s online planning search is at planningapplications.stalbans.gov.uk. Search by reference number in the form 5/2026/1234, or by address with the postcode spaced. Documents, plans and decision notices go back to January 2003 and decision notices back to 1976.

Weekly lists of new applications and decisions are published as PDFs on the council’s applications, decisions and appeals page, usually within a few days of the week ending. If you want to object or support, do it through the portal and include your address; comments are published.

Frequently asked questions

Does St Albans have a Local Plan?

Only the District Local Plan Review 1994, adopted on 30 November 1994, with some policies saved by a 2007 Direction. A replacement covering 2024 to 2041 was submitted for examination on 29 November 2024 and has not yet been adopted.

How many homes does the St Albans Local Plan propose?

15,045 homes between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2041, based on a standard-method local housing need of 885 a year, delivered in steps of 3,795, 6,050 and 5,200 across the three periods of the plan.

Which parts of the Green Belt would be released?

Twelve Strategic Allocations, the largest of them the three Hemel Hempstead growth areas. Within St Albans itself the main ones are North St Albans (1,168 homes), East St Albans (511), North East Harpenden (738), West Redbourn (594), Glinwell (484), West of London Colney (324), North West Harpenden (293) and Harper Lane near Radlett (274).

When will the new St Albans Local Plan be adopted?

Not known. The inspectors were still considering Main Modifications representations and writing their report as of 17 July 2026, and the council says it cannot give an estimate of when the report will be delivered.

Does St Albans have a five-year housing land supply?

The council calculates 5.12 years on adoption of the new plan, from 3,777 expected homes over 2026/27 to 2030/31 against a stepped requirement of 615 a year plus a 20% buffer. That figure depends on the plan being adopted.

Where do I search St Albans planning applications?

At planningapplications.stalbans.gov.uk. Weekly lists of registrations and decisions are published as PDFs by the council.

What happens to planning when the council is abolished?

From 1 April 2028 planning for this area passes to a new West Hertfordshire unitary council covering the current St Albans and Dacorum areas. Shadow elections are in May 2027.

Sources

• New Local Plan and Current Local Plan, St Albans City and District Council, for the 1994 plan, the submission date and the Main Modifications consultation.
• St Albans City and District Local Plan Examination: latest news and updates for the examination timeline and the 17 July 2026 position.
• Draft Local Plan 2041 Main Modifications Publication, Part A (PDF) for Policy SP3, the Green Belt figures and Table 3.1, the twelve Strategic Allocations.
• SADC/ED117 Housing Land Supply Note, February 2026 (PDF) for the 5.12-year supply calculation and the 345 to 360 homes a year delivery figures.
• SADC/ED113 Inspectors’ post-hearings letter, 15 January 2026 (PDF) for the inspectors’ names and their view on the Hemel Green Belt boundary.
• Development Management Committee agenda, 3 August 2026 and the officer report for 5/2025/1556 for the Shottfield Close grey belt case.
• Weekly list of planning and TPO treeworks applications and decisions, week ending 7 August 2026 (PDF) for the week’s registrations and decisions.
• Planning department’s designated status lifted following major improvement for the designation and the performance figures.
• Government announces four unitary authorities in Hertfordshire for local government reorganisation.

Planning positions change week to week. Check the council’s own register before relying on anything here. What the market is doing is on St Albans house prices; what the roads are doing is on St Albans roadworks, parking and travel.