Three Rivers secures massive government funding to enable local plan to be completed

The council agreed in January to delay publishing its final plan (known as Regulation 19) until November to enable it to update polices in line with new government requirements as well as undertake a review to assess whether altering green belt boundaries would fundamentally undermine the purposes of the remaining green belt as the council seeks a lower housing figure than the government requires.

The council agreed in January to do this work so it does not have to put forward a plan for 13,312 new homes over 16 years to 2041.

Council Leader Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst said: “We had bid for a further £100,000 towards this having allocated £200,000 in the council’s budget last month, and a further £200,000 in reserve, which may no longer be required. To get more than double is fantastic and shows that the government supports the work we are doing in trying to get the right housing numbers, on the right locations whilst we seek to protect as much of our green belt as possible.

“I and other councillors have always been clear, that merging communities in Three Rivers would fundamentally undermine the purpose of the green belt but we expect evidence to prove this. This enables us to get that. We must get the plan right and detail the infrastructure we need to support any new housing. I am glad we now have all the resources we need to do this and to bring the plan forward for finalisation I hope in November ahead of the original timetable.”

The funding will pay for consultants to undertake evidence base studies and to provide additional resource to the planning policy team.

So far the council has conducted five rounds of public consultation.

The local plan guides decisions on future development proposals for thousands of new homes and associated infrastructure and employment to meet its future economic and population needs.