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7,000 homes destined for green belt
Around 7,000 homes will have to be built in the green belt around Hemel Hempstead.
A total of 12,000 new homes have been earmarked for Dacorum by 2021, with the likelihood this will rise to 19,000 by 2031.
Cabinet planning chief Ian Reay told a full meeting of Dacorum Borough Council they would aim to build 60 per cent of homes on brownfield sites.
So far 2,000 new homes have been constructed but he predicted the green belt would be hit.
"Roughly 7,000 houses will have to built in the green belt over the period we are talking about," he told councillors.
Likely sites include Fields End and Marchmont Farm in Hemel Hempstead as well as land between the town and M1.
The borough council has criticised the 6.5million of financial support it has received from the government to help with infrastructure improvements, claiming this is less than a third of what is needed.
Council chiefs are also backing a legal challenge to the government's East of England Plan, which sets house-building targets.
The challenge has been brought by Herts County Council, which is questioning the legality of the process used by the government to arrive at the county's allocation of 83,200 homes by 2021.
Councillor Reay said afterwards: "The housing targets in the East of England Plan have been centrally imposed on Dacorum and the rest of Hertfordshire but the government isn't putting in the levels of investment we need to set up new services and infrastructure in order to support these new homes.
"We don't get enough money from central government now to address current issues such as transport and highway matters, let alone supporting major growth.
"We agree with the county council's view that without a massive investment in infrastructure this scale of growth is untenable and wish them every success with their legal challenge."
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Weather for Hemel Hempstead
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: West
