FAQs

The Crown Estate is an independent business that manages land, property and the seabed across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  We are committed to using our resources to benefit communities, the environment and the wider economy, helping to tackle the nation’s long-term challenges in an inclusive and responsible way.  

Our purpose is to create lasting and shared prosperity for the nation.  It drives our strategy and informs everything we do.  We seek to grow the value of our portfolio and return all net revenue profit to the Treasury for the benefit of the nation.   Over the last ten years, we have contributed £4.1 billion to the nation’s finances.  

We have a new ambition to use our portfolio to deliver regeneration and housing, benefitting local economies and communities across the country.  East Hemel is a flagship project for us, where we want to put this ambition into practice and deliver tangible benefits to the area.    

East Hemel is the project name for The Crown Estate’s proposals to develop land to the east of Hemel Hempstead with new housing and public infrastructure, alongside new green space that supports the natural environment.  Our proposals will respond to the needs of the local community both today and for the future.  

We are now starting to prepare a planning application for East Hemel.  This involves various technical and environmental surveys and assessments, alongside a programme of community and stakeholder engagement to ensure our proposals meet the needs of the local area today and for the future.  We are aiming to submit a planning application in the autumn of 2025.  It will then be considered by the local planning authorities and only if and when it is approved, we will begin construction. 

HGC is an ambitious development programme that will transform Hemel Hempstead and be a catalyst for economic growth across Hertfordshire.  It will create attractive and sustainable new neighbourhoods and communities to the north and east of Hemel Hempstead, through the delivery of around 11,000 new homes and 10,000 new jobs by 2050.  

The Crown Estate has been working closely with the HGC partners – Dacorum Borough Council, St Albans City and District Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Hertfordshire Innovation Quarter – and other key landowners to define a vision and concept framework plan for the programme.  This plan ensures that development can come forward across the growth area in a strategic way with the right infrastructure provision in place.   

East Hemel is anticipated to be first phase of HGC to come forward.

Further information on HGC

Westwick Row sits on land adjacent to the East Hemel project (located at the junction of Westwick Row and Green Lane, next to Leverstock Green Primary School).  It is a demonstration housing project and is being delivered by The Crown Estate with development partner TOWN.  The project will test new approaches to working with future residents, local renters, and the local community to design the homes and shared spaces.    

The development also seeks to demonstrate best practice in sustainability and will explore the necessary changes in housing delivery to enable this.  We intend to incorporate learnings from this project into future activity at East Hemel and in other communities.  While our work at Westwick Row is being run as a separate project, Westwick Row and East Hemel will complement each other and there will be opportunities for local communities to get involved in both projects.   

All comments and feedback submitted as part of our public engagement will be considered and used to inform the proposals, helping us to review, refine or adjust things before we finalise the planning application.  We will prepare a report called a Statement of Community Engagement (SCE) which will be submitted as part of the planning application and we will detail how we have responded to feedback.  Your feedback will be used in line with the GDPR regulations.