The county council plans to adopt new planning policies that will offer no guarantees about the number of houses to be built over the next 14 years.

Hertfordshire County Council is changing its Structure Plan, the document that says how many new homes are to be built across the county between now and 2016, and where they should be built.

At a meeting on Tuesday councillors said they wanted to bring in a "wait and see" policy, where the number of new homes required will change according to the number of previously-developed sites available.

But before the policy is formally adopted, district council's such as Hertsmere Borough Council will be given a chance to put their points of view across.

Under a version of the Structure Plan proposed in February, Hertsmere would have been expected to find space for 3,800 new homes by 2016. The council's latest proposals would impose a target of 3,500 new homes by 2016.

But the new version still means the council will have to find space for 250 new homes every year, 20 more than current target of 230 per year.

The county expects Hertsmere to build all the new homes in towns, as there are no suitable undeveloped sites in the borough, and there is a chance the targets could change if the need for housing in Hertfordshire increases or drops off over the next decade.

County Councillor Iris Tarry said the new plan was based on extensive research and negotiations with Hertfordshire's ten district councils.

"There are sufficient sites in Hertfordshire to meet the targets until 2011."

At this stage we do not need to build on the Green Belt," she said.

Richard Grove, the borough council's head of planning, said it was unrealistic to expect Hertsmere to accommodate more than 3,000 new homes, as many of the borough's previously-developed sites had already been used.

The new proposals will be discussed by Hertsmere's councillors at a meeting in September, and Mr Grove invited people to write to him at Hertsmere Council, Elstree Way, Borehamwood, to express their views about extra housing being built in Hertsmere's towns.

June 19, 2002 14:00