29/10/2026
We are delighted to have submitted an outline planning application for the wider Cowley-on-the-Hill proposals, creating a new landmark community in Borehamwood and one of Hertsmere’s most significant opportunities for housing and community infrastructure.
The application sets out our vision for a high-quality, landscape-led and well-connected new neighbourhood in the most sustainable and logical location for growth in the borough. The site is identified as Grey Belt within Hertsmere Borough Council’s own evidence base, reinforcing its suitability and potential to help meet local housing needs.
The scheme will provide up to 994 new homes, including 50% affordable housing (up to 497 homes), alongside community facilities, infrastructure and publicly accessible open space. This includes the 154 homes already proposed through our Potters Lane application (Ref: 26/1164/FUL).
Cowley-on-the-Hill follows years of careful consideration, with the site identified as one of the most suitable locations for delivering much-needed housing and community infrastructure in Hertsmere. Our ambition has always been to create more than simply new homes, bringing together housing, facilities, infrastructure, open space and new connections as one comprehensively planned neighbourhood.
Proposals include a new local centre with community, retail and healthcare space, land for education facilities, sports pitches and pavilion, a new burial ground helping address the well-publicised shortage of burial plots at Allum Lane, a synagogue, a care home of up to 80 beds, play areas, extensive green space and new walking and cycling connections.
The proposals meet the Government’s criteria for development on Grey Belt land and satisfies the associated Golden Rules. With 50% affordable housing, substantial publicly accessible green space and investment in local infrastructure, Cowley-on-the-Hill demonstrates how sustainable growth can benefit existing and future communities.
A strong landscape framework sits at the heart of the masterplan, with existing trees, hedgerows and vegetation shaping the proposals alongside new green corridors, planting, sustainable drainage and recreational spaces, creating an attractive, connected neighbourhood where landscape, facilities and homes are planned together.
Hertsmere Borough Council is in special measures for planning decision-making and has just 0.98 years of housing land supply against the required five years, one of the worst positions in the country, with little prospect of the shortfall being addressed in the short term. Cowley-on-the-Hill represents a significant opportunity to deliver much-needed private and affordable homes alongside the infrastructure, community facilities and open spaces required for a thriving new neighbourhood.
Thank you to our team and professional consultants for their hard work. We look forward to continuing to work with Hertsmere Borough Council and local stakeholders as the application progresses.
