Hemel Garden Communities Supplementary Planning Documents Adopted to Guide Future Growth and Transformation

Dacorum Borough Council and St Albans City and District Council have adopted two Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD) for Hemel Garden Communities (HGC): the HGC Framework and Transformation SPD and the HGC Stewardship and Placemaking SPD.

Adopted on 25 June 2026, the documents provide planning guidance to support the delivery of neighbourhoods and infrastructure across the Hemel Garden Communities (HGC) Programme Area. The HGC Framework and Transformation SPD outlines how neighbourhoods in the HGC Programme Area should be delivered and implemented and explains how this aligns with the wider planning policy framework to enable transformation.  

The HGC Stewardship and Placemaking SPD supplements the Councils’ planning policies with guidance to ensure community assets and infrastructure, provided by new development within the HGC Programme Area, are delivered in accordance with the strategic objectives and policy requirements for HGC. The provisions of these SPDs will, therefore, be applicable upon the adoption of statutory policies in both Councils’ Local Plans as outlined below:

The SPDs have been prepared in accordance with Government guidance and provides further information on the Local Plan policies. Both SPDs will be a material consideration in determining planning applications.  It should be noted that the SPDs will not be fully operative as an SPD for each Council until the adoption of the Dacorum Borough Council Local Plan to 2041or the adoption of the St Albans City and District Local Plan to 2041, given their supplementary nature.

Phillipa Zieba, Programme Director for Hemel Garden Communities adds:

“Adopting these SPDs is a major milestone for Hemel Garden Communities. They will help ensure that as the area grows, it does so with quality, sustainability and community at its heart.”

Following consultations earlier this year, the SPDs were modified to take account of the responses received and other relevant matters. The adopted SPDs, along with their Consultation Statements and Adoption Statements, are available to view on the Councils’ websites:

Dacorum Borough Council:

Additional Planning Guidance Documents

St Albans City & District Council: 

St Albans HGC SPDs

 Hard copies of the SPDs can also be viewed during normal opening hours at the Councils’ main offices and in some district libraries:

•    Dacorum Borough Council, The Forum, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1DN 
•    Dacorum Borough Council, Berkhamsted Civic Centre, 161 High Street, Berkhamsted, HP4 3HD 
•    Dacorum Borough Council, Victoria Hall, Akeman Street, Tring, HP23 6AA 
•    St Albans City & District Council, Civic Centre, St Peter’s Street, St Albans AL1 3JE
•    St Albans Library, Level 2, The Maltings, St Albans, Al1 3JQ 
•    Redbourn Community Library, Dunstable Road, St Albans, AL3 7BE