INTRODUCTION
Offley Parish Council opposes the planned development of 2,100 homes East of Luton (EOL). North Herts Council’s Local Plan includes the three sites EL1, EL2, EL3. These sites sit on the border of North Herts with Luton, swamping the hamlets of Cockernhoe, Mangrove Green and Tea Green.
1,950 homes are included solely to meet ‘Luton Borough Council’s Unmet Housing Need’. Offley Parish Council contests that Luton has been able to meet its housing needs by a) developing sites within Luton Borough Council boundaries and b) by the provision of Central Beds Council of 7,350 homes to meet Luton’s housing needs.
As a result, Offley Parish Council contests that the three sites EL1, EL2 and EL3 have been released from Green Belt status for invalid reasons; that the sites should be removed from the Local Plan and returned to Green Belt status. These sites are valuable farmland and contribute to national food security.
One of the cornfields bordering Luton, targeted for houses. Food Security vs housing?
Noting the change to a Labour Government which is promoting housebuilding as a crucial foundation for economic improvement, Offley Parish Council further contests in a scenario which sees EL1, EL2 and EL3 returned to Green Belt status, that an Authority-Led review of the Green Belt would not result in North Herts Council choosing to develop these sites. This land is prime farmland, not brown-site or grey belt and is not supported by any existing infrastructure.
Notwithstanding Offley Parish Council’s opposition to the development, North Herts Council, together with the Developer Engagement Team (The Crown Estates and Bloor Homes) continue to progress the Strategic Masterplan for this development. Offley Parish Council is a key stakeholder in this engagement.
A Draft EOL Masterplan Consultation was held earlier this year. Following that consultation, the Parish Council has established an EOL sub-committee consisting of representatives from the community to help support the Parish Council and our campaigners…to spread the workload.
The purpose of the sub-committee is two-fold; firstly to work with Local and Central Government and our local community together with the residents of the nearby Wigmore and Stopsley areas of Luton to overturn the decision to develop East of Luton in its entirety and return these sites to Green Belt status; and secondly, to work with the Developer Engagement Team to ensure that the concerns of the community are addressed if the final version of the EOL Masterplan comes to fruition.
This work continues.
Map of impacted Area
CURRENT STATUS
Planning Applications – at August 2024 there are no current planning applications. We will update this page when planning applications are submitted.
IT IS AT PLANNING APPLICATION STAGE THAT THE PUBLIC WILL HAVE THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THEIR SAY.
LUTON BOROUGH COUNCIL’S UNMET HOUSING NEED
Offley Parish Council contends that Luton Borough Council, together with Central Beds Council, will meet its own housing needs without the requirement to develop the three sites EL1, EL2 and EL3.
In the absence of up-to-date and verifiable housing data published by Luton Borough Council, Offley Parish Council has carried out its own assessment of Luton’s Housing Need. The results are published here.
- LBC Housing Need to 2031, determined by the NHC Local Plan, is 16,700
- Based on published data, LBC’s housing capacity is now assessed at over 16,300, compared to the 8,500 stated in its Local Plan. Of great importance, all these dwellings in Luton are on brownfield sites.
- Under Duty to Co-operate, Central Beds forecasts total dwellings to be built by them to meet Luton’s Housing Need is an additional 7,350 – building is well underway and on schedule
- The total housing capacity to meet Luton’s Housing Need of 16,700 is now over 23,650 – a 42% margin of error – in the event of delays, Luton’s need is still met
- This evidence shows, Luton does NOT have an Unmet Housing Need
- There are NO ‘exceptional circumstances’ for the release of the Green Belt East of Luton
- The Green Belt has been released for invalid reasons and any related planning applications should be declined
- There is no need for the planned development East of Luton
Given the overwhelming evidence showing the success of Luton Borough Council to meet its housing need, without the need for the planned development East of Luton, Offley Parish Council’s challenge is ongoing with North Herts Council about the validity of continuing to include EL1, EL2 and EL3 within its Local Plan.
STRATEGIC MASTERPLAN STATUS
The Developer Engagement Team held an exhibition of their ‘final’ Strategic Masterplan on 11th July 2024 at Cockernhoe Village Hall. See ‘Useful Links’ to visit the Developer’s East of Luton website. Although there was no opportunity for public comment, Offley Parish Council has submitted their concerns in relation to their limited view of the Masterplan to North Herts Council (see Offley PC EOL Masterplan concerns document).
The full and final version of the Strategic Masterplan for East of Luton is expected to be submitted to North Herts Council in Autumn 2024 where it will be reviewed and endorsed by the NHC Project Board and submitted to the NHC Cabinet and Full Council for their approval.
Offley Parish Council will further review the full and final version of the Strategic Masterplan when it is publicly available following NHC Project Board endorsement and if necessary, will submit further observations.
In the event North Herts Council approves the Strategic Masterplan for East of Luton, planning applications by the Developers will be submitted we believe later in 2024.
HISTORY
The proposed East of Luton (EOL) development area sits within the boundary of North Hertfordshire Council (NHC), which, until NHC de-registered the land, was separated from Luton Borough Council (LBC) by the Green Belt. Both NHC and LBC have targeted this Green Belt area for development.
The land in question had previously been classified by NHC as making a significant contribution to the Green Belt.
One of the purposes of Green Belt land is to stop urban sprawl. To release the Green Belt, it is necessary to determine that ‘exceptional circumstances’ exist. Offley Borough Council contests that ‘exceptional circumstances’ do not exist – see below for our assessment of the latest housing position in Luton.
The original housing need for Luton was taken from LBC’s Local Plan, which was adopted on 7 November 2017. As early as March 2019, updated information from LBC showed that NHC’s EOL contribution was unnecessary. North Herts Council (NHC) did not adopt its Local Plan until 8 November 2022. However, NHC nonetheless still included the EOL development in its Local Plan solely to meet LBC’s unmet housing need, essentially because LBC’s Local Plan had not been updated.
Some points to note:
- LBC adopted its Local Plan on 7 November 2017. At that time, the LBC housing need was 17,800 through 2031.
- LBC said it had capacity to build 8,500 homes within its boundary between 2011-2031 (calculated as of March 2016).
- The “unmet need” is sought from neighbouring authorities under ‘Duty-To-Co-operate’.
- Central Beds Council was considered by LBC’s Planning Inspector during its Local Plan hearings as the ‘best fit’ to help meet the unmet housing need, and as a neighbouring Authority, it offered 7,350 homes.
- NHC offered the balance of 1,950 homes to be built on Green Belt land, solely for the use of LBC, and proceeded to progress this through their own Local Plan process. This development is known as East of Luton (EOL).
- Note: NHC included developing 2,100 homes at EOL during its Local Plan hearings, of which 1,950 would be for Luton and the balance of 150 for their own needs. NHC confirmed then to the Inspector that it was only LBC’s unmet housing need that justified releasing the Green Belt and, in turn, the EOL development. It could have sourced its own 150 homes elsewhere within North Herts.
- LBC’s Inspector concluded his Examination of LBC’s Local Plan on 1 August 2017, which was adopted on 7 November 2017.
- LBC’s Inspector required LBC to include a Policy LLP40 to commence a Review of its Local Plan by the end of 2019 and complete it by mid-2021 for public examination. In his final report, the LBC Inspector stated – on 13 separate occasions – the importance of this Review. As of August 2024, this review has not been completed and has hardly started.
- Separately, NHC’s Local Plan was submitted for examination in June 2017.
- As part of that NHC Local Plan examination process, the North Herts Inspector requested a revision of LBC’s housing need in July 2019 because of the revised lower housing projections in England and Wales published by the Office for National Statistics. This resulted in a reduced overall LBC housing need, dropping from 17,800 to 16,700.
- In 2019, LBC also produced a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) statement up to 31 March 2019, showing LBC’s housing capacity had increased from 8,500 to 10,903.
Even in March 2019, Central Beds Council met the balance of LBC’s unmet housing need. EOL is not needed – why perpetuate the lie?
- In December 2020 NHC, LBC, the developers/owners Bloor Homes and Crown Estate collectively entered into a Statement of Common Ground (SOCG) using the 10,903 homes from the LBC SHLAA as above. This SOCG also included a further 2,308 homes approved during the period April 2019 to August 2020 and identified by Bloor Homes’ consultants in a footnote. LBC’s housing capacity had increased to 13,211 compared to the 8,500 in its 2017 Local Plan. This SOCG was signed by (among others) Cllr Paul Castleman, the then LBC Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Transport, confirming LBC’s acceptance of this higher 13,211 figure. Further proof: EOL is not needed.
- As a result of this steady increase in LBC’s housing capacity, our campaigners started to monitor every meeting of LBC’s Development Management Committee from late 2019 onwards (where its planning applications are considered). Meetings have been scrutinised in detail, logging permissions granted, listing with location, size and type of development, application reference number and date of approval.
- Figures were summarised for the NHC Local Plan Inspector, and he accepted them in his examination documents. The last one accepted by the Inspector was dated 28 February 2022 (ED240 and ED240A), by which time we had documented that LBC’s housing capacity had risen to 15,038. Yet again, this is proof that EOL is not needed.
- We contacted the Planning Inspectorate about its failure to hold Luton Borough Council accountable for its failure to carry out the required Local Plan Review. The reply stated that ‘the Planning Inspectorate’s involvement with the local plan process ends when the report into the examination is issued. We have no legal authority to follow up or enforce policy requirements that are set out in an adopted plan.’
- Meanwhile, Central Beds Council adopted its Local Plan on 22 July 2021, including its commitment to provide 7,350 dwellings on 19 sites to the north/northwest of Luton to help meet the city’s unmet housing needs. As of mid-2024 2,000 of those had already been built with the rest on schedule for completion by 2031.
- The NHC Inspector continued examining the NHC Local Plan and submitted his final report on 8 September 2022.
- In respect of EOL:
- The Inspector accepted that Luton’s housing need should be reduced to 16,700.
- The Inspector concluded he must base his decision on the last published housing data from LBC (dated March 2019) as LBC was the ‘responsible public authority’. The Inspector felt the over-supply data was an acceptable margin in case certain planned developments did not go ahead as planned.
- The Inspector concluded that the EOL development should remain in the NHC Local Plan even though the data proved EOL is not needed.
- However, the NHC Inspector also drew attention to the fact that:
‘It is necessary to consider whether there has been a meaningful change in the housing situation in Luton. This is relevant because if there has been a material reduction in the level of unmet need identified in the Luton Local Plan – either because the need itself had reduced or the supply had increased – that could invalidate the exceptional circumstances necessary to release Green Belt land and for North Herts/Central Beds to provide houses to meet the extent of Luton’s stated unmet housing needs.’
The Planning Practice Guidance, as quoted in the Inspector’s Report, states that these housing figures should be informed by the latest information available.
- The NHC Inspector requires NHC to carry out a Review of its Local Plan within one year (by 2023).
- The NHC Inspector requires a Masterplan for EOL to be created before any planning approvals can be granted.
- The community was aggrieved at the continued inclusion of EOL and our campaigners asked our MP Bim Afolami to request the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ‘call-in’ North Herts’ Local Plan. We did not get a reply to this request.
- On 8 November 2022, North Herts Council had a meeting to adopt their Local Plan.
- The Councillors had each been met by the Council to discuss the Local Plan before this meeting and were told that whilst the Local Plan was not ideal, voting against it would be worse, as without a Local Plan unwanted development could arise. In effect, the Councillors were told that the vote had to be binary, an unconditional yes or no vote for the Local Plan.
- This advice was crucial and heavily slanted towards approval of EOL because two of our campaigners spoke at the adoption meeting and stated that we were not asking for the Local Plan to be refused but rather sought a condition that any planning application to proceed on EOL development should be put on hold until LBC had complied with the law and produced a review of their Local Plan. This review would have proven beyond doubt that EOL was not needed.
- Several Councillors at that meeting were prepared to table a motion to support our position but were prevented from doing so by the binary vote ruling.
- We can find no evidence in the NHC Procedural Regulations that stipulates how votes should be organised for full Council Meetings, and we have never discovered under what authority this decision was made.
- Subsequent correspondence with NHC has informed us that one of our local Councillors was prevented from voting against the Local Plan. How can an elected Councillor be denied the ability to represent his constituents? This is undemocratic.
- Subsequently, our MP did engage with the Secretary of State concerning the removal of ‘Duty-to-Cooperate’. Guidance was provided to the NHC CEO and to the NHC Leader of the Council explaining how EOL could be removed from the NHC Local Plan, but NHC has refused to act.
In June 2024, the housing capacity figure to 2031 for LBC had risen to c.16,300, which combined with the 7,350 housing contribution from Central Beds, gives a total of 23,650 homes. This far exceeds LBC’s 16,700 target. The planned development East of Luton is not required.
NHC conducted a preliminary review of their Local Plan (as required by the Inspector) in December 2023, including EOL. NHC has identified that EOL will be further examined as a direct result of what NHC terms ‘housing changes in a neighbouring jurisdiction’ (which must mean Luton).
However, the timetable for this Review, which includes gathering evidence in 2024/25, most likely leading to another public examination and a completion sometime in 2027, is such that planning applications for EOL will most likely have been granted beforehand.
According to the EOL Draft Masterplan consultation documentation, the developers plan to get planning approval in Spring 2025, with construction to start sometime in 2026 and the first houses built in 2027. These houses will appear just at the same time that the NHC Review proves beyond doubt that there is no need for them!
This would be shameful.
Apart from the many complexities and inconsistencies we have highlighted, our EOL area could be designated as part of a new extension to the Chilterns Natural Landscape. The broader area east of Luton through to Hitchin is earmarked for this Natural Landscape expansion. By early Summer this year, Natural England will make known which landscape areas its consultants have decided merit this protection.
To illustrate the level of objection to this development, some 1,000 local residents in the EOL villages and the Wigmore Ward of Luton made representations against the EOL development in 2016, and a similar number made representations during the NHC Local Plan hearing sessions.
Bloor Homes and Crown Estates have invited the public to comment on their EOL Strategic Masterplan. We attended the first meeting, but the plan they provided fell well short of the detail required by the NHC Local Plan. They agreed, but they said it was a draft, and they were looking for input for the final document.
We contest that it was completely invalid as a consultation because it didn’t provide the requirements of Policy SP9 of the NHC Local Plan with an illustrative masterplan showing any details of the housing location on the site or the type, mix and quantum of the housing.
Conclusion
- The proposed development on Green Belt land is based solely on helping to meet Luton’s unmet housing needs. This was proven in the NHC Local Plan Examination to be non-existent. This is not an acceptable ‘exceptional circumstance’ for releasing the Green Belt.
- Luton Borough Council has not complied with its policy LLP40 to review its Local Plan by mid-2021. It is now over 6 years from its Local Plan adoption of 7 November 2017.
- LBC is operating illegally as per the requirements of the Town and Country (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012, which requires that Local Plan Reviews be completed at least every five years from their adoption date—7 November 2017 in LBC’s case. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) also states that Local Plans should be reviewed at least every five years following adoption and updated as necessary. This is backed up by the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG).
- Had this LBC Local Plan Review (as the ‘responsible public authority’) been carried out, it would have clearly shown that the increased housing capacity within Luton, together with the reduced housing need and the valuable contribution from Central Beds Council, collectively mean that the EOL development would not be needed, and the release of Green Belt would be invalidated.
Offley Parish Council provided this information to Central Government via a letter to then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak MP and Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove MP, requesting their intervention. The letter and accompanying fact sheet were sent to Mr Sunak and Mr Gove on Tuesday, 21 May 2024. On Wednesday, 22 May 2024 the Prime Minister announced the General Election. Our letter was not acted upon by the outgoing Conservative Government.
Offley Parish Council continues to pursue this argument with our new MP, Alistair Strathern and the new Labour Government. Additionally, we continue to pursue this argument with North Herts Council and Luton Borough Council.
COMMUNICATIONS
USEFUL LINKS
Developer Engagement Team East of Luton site containing details of Strategic Masterplan :
https://www.eastofluton.co.uk/
end www.offleypc.org.uk
