Major 1,400-home development near Tring recommended for approval - and it will come with two new schools
Planning officers have recommended that a 1,400-home development to the east of Tring should be given planning permission.
A final decision on the application, known as Marshcroft, will be made by Dacorum Borough Council’s planning committee next Thursday (April 16).
The application, from Harrow Estates, also includes land for a new two-form entry primary school, a secondary school, a local centre, and a sports hub.
Plans to build the homes were resubmitted last year, after a previous application was vetoed in 2024 by Michael Gove, then levelling up secretary.
The site, which sits between Bulbourne Road, the Grand Union Canal and Station Road, is within the Green Belt but has been allocated for housing in the council’s draft Local Plan, which acts as the blueprint for future development in the area.
Council officers believe that under recent national policy reforms, the site counts as Grey Belt because it does not “strongly contribute” to Green Belt purposes, including stopping unrestricted sprawl, preventing the merger of neighbouring towns, and preserving the special character of historic towns.
Currently, Dacorum only has a 1.03-year supply of deliverable housing sites, far below the required minimum of five years.
Council officers said the “severe and acute shortfall” of sites “weighs heavily in favour of boosting housing delivery at the earliest opportunity”.
“There is a clear and pressing need to increase the supply of housing without delay,” their report said.
If the Marshcroft plans are approved, the developer, part of the Barratt Redrow Group, would be required to pay hefty contributions towards local infrastructure.
They would include £10.3m towards secondary education, £2m towards SEND provision, £1.9m towards healthcare, £1.1m towards off-site sports facilities, £735,000 towards bus service improvements, £657,000 towards Tring railway station improvements, and £429,000 towards canal towpath improvements.
New sports facilities would also be constructed on the site itself, including a sports hub, a floodlit 3G grass pitch, a cricket square, and three smaller grass pitches.
Details of the housing would be ironed out in a future application, but the homes would range from one-bedroom to five-bedroom in size.
Half of the housing would be affordable, according to the government definition of the term, and around 10% would be extra care housing for older people.