Hertfordshire council area

Selling Land in North Hertfordshire

North Hertfordshire adopted its local plan in November 2022, yet its own statement of November 2025 shows only 2.6 years of deliverable housing land against that plan. Work on a replacement has begun under the government's new system, and land can be put forward for it until 24 November 2026.

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The District in Brief

North Hertfordshire Council, based in Letchworth Garden City, covers four towns, Hitchin, Letchworth Garden City, Baldock and Royston, and villages from Knebworth and Codicote in the south to Ashwell, Barkway and Therfield in the north. Its adopted plan also counts the district's share of the edges of Stevenage and Luton as growth locations.

A plan from 2022 with a supply problem. The Local Plan 2011 to 2031 was approved at an extraordinary council meeting in November 2022. By November 2025 the council could no longer show a five-year supply of land against it.
A delivery result of 75%. In the Housing Delivery Test 2025 the district built 1,424 homes against a requirement of 1,910, which puts it in the band where a 20% buffer is added to the land it must show.
Two Green Belts. The London Metropolitan Green Belt wraps around Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock and the Stevenage edge, and the Luton Green Belt covers parts of the west. The rest of the countryside is what the plan calls rural area beyond the Green Belt.
A corner of the Chilterns. Part of the district lies inside the Chilterns National Landscape.
A new plan under way. The council gave notice of a replacement plan in April 2026.

The combination is unusual: a plan less than five years old, whose own sites have not produced homes fast enough to keep the land supply topped up.

North Hertfordshire in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
75%
Below 85%: a 20% buffer is added to its five-year housing land supply.
Homes built against homes needed
1,424
of 1,910 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
November 2022
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
No recent stage listed
Check the council's website for its timetable.

Sources: Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement, MHCLG, published 17 August 2026; Local plans: monitoring progress, Planning Inspectorate, August 2026. Local plans move quickly, so always check the council's own website for the latest position.

A Shortfall in Land Supply, Not Only in Delivery

The council's land supply update of November 2025 covers the five years from April 2025 to March 2030. It found 3,629 homes on deliverable sites against 6,976 needed under the adopted plan, or 2.6 years. Against the government's standard method, at 1,043 homes a year, it reached 3.3 years.

The plan's housing requirement is stepped, rising to 1,120 homes a year from April 2024, and the district carries 1,253 homes of undersupply from earlier years. The council applied only the basic 5% buffer, because its previous delivery result, from the 2023 measurement, was 105%.

Why This Matters More Than the 75% Headline

National policy treats a council scoring below 75% as having unmet housing need, and North Hertfordshire is not below that line. But the August 2026 framework also accepts a shortfall in the five-year supply as evidence of unmet need under policy S5, and the council's own document supplies it. For land outside the Green Belt that sits well against a town or village, where roads, schools and drainage can cope, S5 is a live route.

Inside a town or village boundary. Policy S4 applies. Approval should follow unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
Outside a settlement, beyond the Green Belt. Policy S5 can apply, with the land supply shortfall as the evidence of need. The site still has to relate well to the settlement beside it.
In the Green Belt. S5 does not reach it. The question becomes whether the land is grey belt, or previously developed, and whether a scheme can meet the Golden Rules.

Our grey belt guide sets out that third route in full.

Where the 2022 Plan Put Its Large Sites

Much of the plan's supply rests on six strategic sites of 500 homes or more, each of which policy SP9 requires to have a masterplan. A cabinet report of April 2026 set out their progress.

Site	Scale in the plan	Position reported in April 2026
North of Baldock	About 2,800 homes, the largest single allocation	Outline application submitted October 2025, consultation under way
North of Letchworth	About 900 homes	Applicant procuring a development partner
Highover Farm, Hitchin	About 700 homes	Outline permission granted November 2024, with reserved matters following
North east of Great Ashby	About 600 homes, in Weston parish	Outline application submitted January 2026
East of Luton	Up to 2,100 homes	Amendments to two outline applications submitted November 2025

The sixth lies north of Stevenage, around Graveley. Sizes come from local reporting of the final plan in November 2022.

Until sites of this size have permission, most of their homes cannot be counted as deliverable. That is the practical reason a 2022 plan sits well short of five years, and why smaller sites that can be built quickly carry weight while the strategic sites catch up.

How Many Homes the Plan Is For

The council's adoption announcement describes around 11,600 homes to meet the district's needs, while policy SP2 provides for at least 13,000. The larger figure counts everything the plan makes room for, including the homes it lists on the edge of Luton, so the two measure different things. For a landowner, what counts today is the land supply, measured against the stepped requirement.

Towns, Village Categories and What Each Allows

Policy SP2 sorts every settlement into a category that decides what can happen inside it. Because policy S4 works within settlements, knowing which one your land sits in, or next to, is the first step.

Towns. Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth Garden City and Royston, with the edges of Stevenage and Luton, take about four fifths of the planned homes. Five villages, Barkway, Codicote, Ickleford, Knebworth and Little Wymondley, take a larger share than the rest.
Category A villages. General development is allowed within their boundaries. They include Ashwell, Barley, Kimpton, Offley, Pirton, Preston, Reed, St Ippolyts, Weston and Whitwell.
Category B villages. Only infilling that does not extend the built core, in places such as Great Wymondley, Hinxworth, Lilley, Old Knebworth and Willian.
Category C settlements. Limited affordable housing and community facilities for local needs, in hamlets such as Bygrave, Clothall, Langley and Radwell.

Neighbourhood plans can go further, though they cannot move Green Belt boundaries. A paddock beside a Category A village is a very different proposition from one beside a Category C hamlet.

Green Belt, the Chilterns and the River Valleys

The 2022 plan changed the Green Belt in both directions. It took land out of the Green Belt for some of the strategic sites, and it created a new area of Green Belt between Hitchin and Luton, linking to the Green Belt in Bedfordshire. Older maps are no guide.

The district sits at the head of two major river catchments, the Great Ouse and the Thames. The plan picks out the wet meadows and fens along the River Hiz and its tributaries, and the River Rhee, which leaves the district north of Ashwell. Holdings in these valleys often include drier ground too, and homes can often be placed there, with the lower land kept for open space and drainage.

In the Chilterns, major development needs exceptional circumstances, and land just outside is judged on its effect on the setting of the hills.

Putting Land Into the New Plan

The council first invited land in May 2025 and is taking sites until 5pm on 24 November 2026. Two details are easy to miss:

Earlier submissions do not carry over. The council asks for sites put forward before to be sent in again.
Allocations start at about ten homes. Smaller sites are still welcomed for the brownfield and self-build registers.

A land availability study due next year will assess them and could inform draft allocations by autumn 2027. Under an option agreement with us, we prepare and pay for the submission and its evidence, and keep making the case at each later stage. The general process is set out in call for sites and local plans.

Land next to Hitchin, Letchworth Garden City, Baldock or Royston with a road frontage.
Fields beside Knebworth, Codicote, Ickleford, Barkway, Little Wymondley or a Category A village.
Land beyond the Green Belt that relates well to an existing settlement.
Former yards, farm buildings and commercial sites, including those in the Green Belt.

What We Are Watching in North Hertfordshire

The Next Delivery Result and the Next Supply Statement

The government publishes the Housing Delivery Test once a year. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, covering April 2022 to March 2025, which includes the first year of the higher stepped requirement. A fall below 75% next time would make unmet need automatic under policy S5, on top of the supply evidence. A rise to 85% or more would remove the 20% buffer. The council's next land supply statement, for which it has given no date, will be the first to reflect this result, and a larger buffer means more homes to find from the same sites.

The Plan's Fifth Anniversary

The adopted plan passes five years old in November 2027. National policy then measures land supply against the standard method rather than the plan's own figure, which the November 2025 update put at 1,043 homes a year. On that measure the supply was still short of five years.

The Timetable for the New Plan

The council's published timetable, last updated on 4 August 2026, shows a content and evidence consultation from 13 October to 24 November 2026, a proposed plan consultation from 26 October 2027 to 4 January 2028, submission by 31 May 2028 and adoption on 5 January 2029. An April 2026 cabinet report gave adoption as December 2028; the August timetable is the later document.

Reorganisation, Now Under Review

In July 2026 the government chose to place most of North Hertfordshire in a new Central Hertfordshire council, with Stevenage and most of Welwyn Hatfield, while five wards, the three Royston wards together with Ermine and with Weston and Sandon, would join Eastern Hertfordshire. On 7 September 2026 the local government minister asked councils to stop implementing that decision while it is reviewed, and confirmed that May 2027 elections will be for the existing councils. For now, the district council prepares the plan and decides applications.

What It Means for Timing

The November deadline matters most in the short term, because it gathers the sites that draft allocations will be drawn from. Land that can make an S5 or grey belt case now need not wait for the new plan. Our guide to how long planning takes sets out the stages either way.

Questions About Land in North Hertfordshire

The plan only dates from 2022. Why would the council approve homes on land it did not allocate?

Because a recent plan still has to be backed by a five-year supply of deliverable land, and the council's latest statement does not show one. National policy accepts that as evidence of unmet need, so well located land outside the Green Belt can be considered now.

I put my land forward in 2025. Do I need to do anything?

Yes. The council asks for earlier submissions to be sent in again by 24 November 2026. If your land is with us, we handle the resubmission.

My field is near Royston. Which council will decide on it in future?

The July 2026 decision placed the Royston wards in Eastern Hertfordshire, but the government has since paused it for review. Until anything changes, North Hertfordshire Council decides applications across the whole district.

Does the new Green Belt between Hitchin and Luton affect me?

If your land is in it, yes. It is treated like any other Green Belt, so the route is grey belt or previously developed land rather than policy S5.

Could my land be caught up in one of the big strategic sites?

Land next to a strategic site can benefit from the roads, schools and drainage it brings. We look at how your land relates to the nearest allocation in our free review, and our page on farmland explains the holdings we consider.

Tell Us About Your Land in North Hertfordshire

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Sources

Figures on this page come from the Housing Delivery Test 2025 (published 17 August 2026) and the Planning Inspectorate's local plan monitoring to August 2026, with newer plan milestones checked on 24 September 2026. We update the page when new results or plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.