A plan for land north of Potters Lane offers 154 homes with half of them affordable, a synagogue and an 80-bed care home on Green Belt. Comments close 15 September.

An application to build 154 homes, a synagogue and an 80-bed care home on Green Belt fields north of Potters Lane in Borehamwood is open for comment until 15 September 2026.

Half the homes would be affordable. That is 77 of the 154, well above the 35 per cent that Hertsmere policy requires, and it is offered because national Green Belt rules now demand it.

The reference is 26/1164/FUL. It was validated on 13 August. Of 725 people and bodies consulted, 12 have commented so far. Ten object and none support.

The site and what is proposed

The land runs to about 10.56 hectares, including the highway land needed for the new accesses. It sits behind Potters Lane to the south, with Hertswood Academy to the west, Well End Road to the east and open grassland to the north. It is private land with no public access at present.

This is a hybrid application, which means two things are being asked for at once:

  • full permission for 154 homes and the synagogue, with vehicle and pedestrian access from both Potters Lane and Well End Road
  • outline permission, with everything except access reserved for later, for a care home of up to 80 bedrooms

The synagogue would sit in the south-western corner of the site with 20 parking spaces. The care home would go in the north-western corner, also with 20 spaces. Homes would be one to three storeys. There would be public open space on the western side of the site, connected to the existing footpath network, and a landscaped buffer along the boundaries.

The applicants are Wrotham Park Settled Estates and Griggs (Options 2) Limited, advised by Woolf Bond Planning.

The housing mix

Proposed dwelling mix for application 26/1164/FUL, land north of Potters Lane, Borehamwood
TypeMarketAffordableTotal
1 bed flat01818
2 bed flat178
2 bed house22830
3 bed house382462
4 bed house33033
5 bed house303
Total7777154

Every one-bed flat and all but two of the two-bed houses would be affordable. Every four and five-bed house would be sold on the open market. Three-bed houses are the one size split roughly down the middle. The tenure split within the affordable half is not fixed yet and would be settled in a legal agreement with the council’s housing team.

Why 50 per cent, when policy asks for 35

The site is Green Belt, and has been since the 2013 Core Strategy. The applicant is not arguing that this does not matter. It is arguing that the land is grey belt.

Grey belt is the category introduced by paragraph 155 of the National Planning Policy Framework. It covers Green Belt land that does not strongly serve the Green Belt’s main purposes. Development on it can escape being treated as inappropriate, but only if four conditions are met at once:

  • the land qualifies as grey belt and the wider Green Belt is not fundamentally undermined
  • there is a demonstrable unmet need for the type of development proposed
  • the location is sustainable
  • the scheme meets the framework’s “Golden Rules”

The Golden Rules are why the offer is 50 per cent. The applicant’s planning statement sets out the logic in three steps. The scheme provides 77 affordable homes out of 154. That “exceeds the expectations of Policy CS4 of the Core Strategy (2013) which seeks 35% provision”. And it “meets the ‘Golden Rules’ for Green Belt development”, which require at least half the housing to be affordable.

The contrast with the other big Hertsmere scheme in front of a decision maker right now is stark, and it is a contrast the same national policy produces.

Affordable housing offered by two live Hertsmere applications A comparison. The Potters Lane scheme in Borehamwood offers 77 affordable homes out of 154, which is 50 per cent. The Maple House scheme in Potters Bar offers none out of 293, which is 0 per cent. Hertsmere policy CS4 requires 35 per cent. Two live Hertsmere schemes, two very different offers Share of homes offered as affordable housing Potters Lane, Borehamwood 154 homes, Green Belt 50% (77 homes) Maple House, Potters Bar 293 flats, town centre 0% (none offered, on viability grounds) Hertsmere policy CS4 minimum: 35% Sources: planning statement for application 26/1164/FUL, July 2026; Hertsmere Section 62A Report, Planning Committee, 3 September 2026. Graphic by The Borehamwood Post
The Potters Bar scheme is not on Green Belt, so the Golden Rules do not apply to it.

The council cannot show it has enough housing land

The applicant’s case rests heavily on one number, and it comes from the council’s own admission at an appeal.

A planning appeal inquiry was held in Potters Bar in May 2026. The planning statement says Hertsmere accepted there that it cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land. The period in question runs from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2028. The statement puts the council’s position at 0.98 years of supply, and says Hertsmere has not shown a five-year supply since 2019/20.

That claim comes from the applicant, not from the council. But the council’s own officers made the same point in a separate report published last week, noting that Hertsmere “cannot demonstrate a five-year housing land supply”.

The adopted Core Strategy plans for 266 homes a year. The applicant calculates that the government’s standard method, with the buffer applied, now produces a requirement of 1,170 a year.

The site has been in and out of the Local Plan

This land has moved back and forth in the council’s planning for the best part of a decade.

  • 2013: the Core Strategy proposals map puts the site in the Green Belt.
  • 2017: an outline application for 58 homes, reference 17/2494/OUT, wins a committee resolution to grant permission.
  • 2021: the Regulation 18 draft Local Plan proposes a new neighbourhood here of roughly 800 homes, as site BE3.
  • 2024: the next Regulation 18 draft drops the site as an allocation. The council’s own Green Belt assessment that March still rates it among the better performing sites in the borough.
  • April 2026: the latest Regulation 18 draft brings it back, as part of site HBA SA16a, the Well End Strategic Urban Extension.
  • 13 August 2026: this application is validated.

The layout has been drawn to connect through to the rest of that allocation, so this is presented as the first phase of something larger rather than a self-contained estate.

What else the register records

The council’s own constraint list for the application names 18 designations. The ones that will shape the assessment include:

  • Green Belt, and a proposed Green Belt boundary under the draft Local Plan
  • the Watling Chase Community Forest
  • a mineral consultation area for sand and gravel
  • a groundwater Source Protection Zone
  • the London Luton Airport safeguarding map, and a consultation zone for Elstree Aerodrome
  • the Shenley Neighbourhood Plan area
  • Community Infrastructure Levy Area A, at £120 per square metre

Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council is a consultee, as are the Elstree and Borehamwood Residents Association and two Well End residents’ groups.

What it means for you

Comments close on Tuesday 15 September 2026 and go to Hertsmere, not to the Planning Inspectorate. This application is being decided by the council in the normal way.

  • Search 26/1164/FUL on the Hertsmere planning register to read the 82 documents and add a comment.
  • A scheme of this size, with objections already logged, will almost certainly go to Planning Committee rather than being decided by an officer.
  • If you live on Potters Lane, Well End Road or Green Street, the access points and the footpath links are the details worth reading. Both new junctions come off those two roads.

Traffic and highway safety are matters for Hertfordshire County Council as highway authority, and its response will be published on the same register.

Sources