What will get built in Herefordshire this year? Part Two

Part Two of our look-ahead to what’s expected to be built in Herefordshire in 2023 looks at the different kinds of new housing we can expect.

The Government’s recent easing of its housebuilding targets is likely to impact the preparation of Herefordshire’s local plan, the cornerstone of planning in the county which will set out what can be built where in the coming years, and which initially foresaw 17,000 new homes in the county by 2041.

However, little progress was made in 2022 in overcoming the so-called moratorium on building in the river Lugg catchment covering much of the north of the county, meaning many developments there remain stalled.

Meanwhile, work is due to begin on a planned 230-home estate off the A49 south of Hereford, after it was narrowly approved in September. And Bovis Homes announced plans back in August for further 140 homes at the Hawk Rise development in Ledbury, where permission for a further 49 homes was granted in spring.

A bid to build a 350-home estate as part of Hereford’s planned westward extension on farmland beyond Three Elms Road, closed to comments in early September but has yet to be ruled on, while a decision is also awaited on a 45-home scheme at nearby King’s Acre.

Further developments with social and affordable elements are due to complete in the year ahead in Hereford (Holmer Trading Estate), Ledbury (Full Pitcher), Orleton and St Weonards, according to Herefordshire Council.

The council also continues its programme of buying up sites for social housing, most recently in Ross East and Hereford’s Central and Hinton & Hunderton wards, in addition to its Holme Lacy and Aylestone Hill sites. But this policy could be reversed if there is a change in power following May’s local elections.

On a smaller scale, there have been several recent bids to turn disused properties in Hereford’s historic heart, as well as in the county’s market towns, into homes, as part of a nationwide trend towards inner-city living. The pandemic has freeing up properties by pushing along the decline in city-centre retail and office working, in some cases enabling a return to their original domestic use.

The trend to converting farm buildings, more or less the only way of creating new homes in rural locations given planning restrictions, and increasingly focussed on portal-frame “sheds” rather than traditional barns, also looks likely to continue.