Council demands urgent meeting with Housing Minister amid claims it is “between a rock and a hard place” over Local Plan
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has requested an urgent meeting with Minister for Housing Stuart Andrew after claiming it faces “an impossible choice” in relation to its Local Plan.
The local authority said the government's appointed planning inspector had set a deadline of 21 March for a key decision on the Local Plan.
Welwyn Hatfield has written to the inspector to state that any decision about the required number of new homes should be based on a survey of the housing "starts and completions" for 2021-22.
This survey is carried out in April by Hertfordshire County Council and Welwyn Hatfield normally receives the provisional results in May, the borough council said.
The letter to the inspector states that members would then be in a stronger position to consider the options.
Welwyn Hatfield said: “There are scheduled meetings of the council's Cabinet Planning and Parking Panel on 23 June and Full Council on 6 July. The council believes it would be appropriate to take any recommendations to these meetings, not least because the pre-election period starts later this month, and it would not be possible to begin consultation until after the local elections in May.
“As it stands, the council faces what it believes is an impossible choice. It will either be forced to submit a Local Plan to which it and the community strongly object, and which it believes is unsound, or to withdraw the plan and start again - with all the associated cost and risk that entails."
Cllr Stephen Boulton, Welwyn Hatfield’s Executive Member for Environment, Planning, Estates and Development, said: "We're between a rock and a hard place. The options presented to us are either to accept an unsound plan, or to scrap it completely and start again. Both would be extremely irresponsible, and neither would match the clearly expressed views of our communities.
"As far as we understand, agreeing the housing need will require the monitoring of this years' housing completions and commencements. The survey is carried out over April by Hertfordshire County Council, and we normally receive the provisional results in May. At this point Members will then be in a position to consider the options.”
Cllr Boulton added: "The government's new Levelling Up White Paper talks about protecting green spaces and empowering local leaders. It also refers to pressure on housing and green belt land in areas like ours, but this doesn't seem to be acknowledged by the planning inspector.
"That's why, given the situation in which we now find ourselves, we have written to the Minister for Housing, along with our MP, requesting a meeting to discuss the local circumstances in Welwyn Hatfield. We have a strong desire to do what's right for the borough, right for our green belt, and right for our communities."
