Watford planning: 156 homes approved, down from 859

Watford Borough Council granted planning permission for 156 homes in the year to 31 March 2025. The year before it granted 859, and the year before that 838. At the same time 79% of the dwellings on existing permissions lapsed, against the 3% that lapsed the previous year and the 15% the Local Plan examination assumed was normal for the borough.

Those two numbers come from the council’s own Authority Monitoring Report, published in February 2026, and they are the most important thing happening in Watford planning right now. This page sets out the Local Plan Watford is working to, what it is actually delivering, and the schemes that will decide the next few years.

The plan, and the target

Watford Borough Council adopted the Watford Local Plan 2021 to 2038 on 17 October 2022, after an examination by inspector Will Fieldhouse who found it sound subject to modifications. It replaced the 2006 Core Strategy and the saved policies of the 2000 District Plan.

The plan sets a minimum of 13,328 homes over the plan period, an average of 784 a year. That figure came from the Government’s standard method as it stood when the plan was adopted. Because the plan is still under five years old, it is the target Watford is measured against rather than any newer national number.

Watford is a small, tightly built borough, so almost all of that has to come from previously developed land. It does: 99% of residential completions in 2024/25 were on brownfield sites, against a policy target of 80%.

What is actually being built

Completions are the healthy half of that table. 691 net new homes in 2024/25 is a shortfall on 784, but it is roughly double the 312 a year Watford averaged between 2015/16 and 2020/21. Three sites did most of it: 170 homes at Land East of Ascot Road, 168 at Hanny House, 37-39 Clarendon Road, and 141 at 94-98 St Albans Road. Three quarters of all completions were on sites of 100 units or more.

Permissions are the worrying half. Granting 156 homes in a year when you need 784 is not a pipeline, and the lapse figure sits underneath it: 123 dwellings on existing permissions lapsed during the year against 156 granted, and on major sites of ten homes or more it was 97 lapsed against 100 granted, a 97% lapse rate where the two previous years recorded none at all.

The council’s answer, and the four schemes behind it

The Authority Monitoring Report does not leave that 156 unexplained. It says several major applications were resolved to grant at the Development Management Committee during the year but were still waiting for a signed section 106 agreement, so they do not yet count as permissions. Those four schemes come to 655 homes:

• Watford Police Station, Shady Lane, 314 build-to-rent homes, application 24/00615/FULM, approved by committee 4 March 2025.
• Land at Kytes Drive, 146 homes, application 23/01097/FULM, approved February 2025, reconsidered and approved again in September 2025.
• 23-33 The Parade, 141 homes, application 23/00391/FULM, approved by committee 10 July 2024.
• Land at Russell Lane, 54 homes, application 23/00949/FULM, approved by committee 3 December 2024.

The council expects those section 106 agreements to be finalised during 2025/26, which would move 655 homes into next year’s figures. Judge the pipeline when the next monitoring report says whether that happened.

Behind it there were 2,534 homes with live planning permission in the borough on 31 March 2025, down from 3,295 a year earlier.

Watford has a five-year housing land supply

Unusually for a council in this part of Hertfordshire, Watford can currently show the five-year supply of deliverable housing land that the National Planning Policy Framework demands. Its five-year supply statement, published in May 2025 and covering April 2024 to March 2029, puts the position at 5.44 years, from 4,557 homes:

This matters to anyone objecting to a development. Where a council cannot demonstrate five years of supply, national policy tilts decisions towards approval. Watford can, so its Local Plan policies carry full weight and speculative applications on unallocated sites are easier to refuse. That is the practical difference between planning in Watford and planning in several neighbouring districts.

On the Housing Delivery Test, the borough scored 97% for 2021 to 2023 and faces no sanctions. That figure has its own story: the Government published 121% in December 2024, the council spotted that the calculation had used its old 2013 housing requirement, and a corrected letter in January 2025 put the true score at 97%. Watford scored 48% in 2020 and 73% in 2022, so 97% is a real improvement whichever way it is counted.

Affordable housing is where the plan is missing

Policy HO3.3 asks for 35% of habitable rooms to be affordable on sites of ten homes or more, and says 60% of affordable homes should be for social rent. In 2024/25 Watford completed 126 affordable homes, 17% by habitable room, and only 6% of them were social rent. Sixty per cent were affordable rent and 34% shared ownership or intermediate.

The council adopted two supplementary planning documents on 15 July 2025 aimed at this. The Affordable Housing: Developer Contributions SPD changes how off-site commuted sums are calculated and introduces a late-stage review, so a scheme that turns out more profitable than forecast can be asked for more affordable housing after it is largely built. The Co-Living: Standards and Requirements SPD sets standards for co-living schemes, a form Watford is seeing more of. A third SPD, for the Colne Valley Strategic Development Area, is at the discussion stage.

Riverwell, the borough’s biggest scheme

Riverwell is the 70-acre regeneration around Watford General Hospital and Watford Football Club, in the Vicarage, Oxhey and Holywell wards, run as a 50:50 joint venture between the council and Kier Property. A Cabinet report on 9 February 2026 sets out what twelve years have produced:

• 579 new homes, of which 85 are affordable, plus 255 senior living apartments
• more than 3 acres of public open space along the River Colne, and the river itself cleaned up
• 1.5km of new road and flood defence works
• 156,000 sq ft of trade counter and light industrial space
• 1,455 car parking spaces serving the hospital

Avenues Phase 1 finished and filled during the year, 85 homes of which 23 are affordable and 20 for social rent. Phase 2a, 47 family houses, has been sold on for delivery. Riverwell Square is under construction and will bring a 131-room hotel, a Tesco and a Greggs. The plan to March 2027 is to finish the phases in progress, agree a land swap with Hertfordshire County Council covering the school and island sites so that Avenues Phase 3 can come forward, find a buyer for Plot F, and keep working with the hospital.

The new hospital, and why 2032 matters

Watford Borough Council granted outline planning permission for the redevelopment of Watford General Hospital in September 2023, and West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust completed the purchase of the final plot in December 2024. The Government confirmed the scheme would be funded under the New Hospital Programme in January 2025 and allocated £12m in May 2025 for works to prepare the site, which are under way.

Construction of the hospital itself is not scheduled to start until 2032, according to the trust’s own page on the scheme. The trust says it is keeping a project team in place so it can start earlier if an opportunity arises. The Riverwell business plan lists the interaction between a future hospital rebuild and its own remaining phases as a live risk on both sides.

The town centre

The council signed a 25-year lease with Lidl in July 2026 for 29-35 High Street, the 45,000 sq ft former Woolworths building the council bought in 2009, next to the Harlequin centre. Fit-out is under way. On the council’s own figures the town centre vacancy rate was 9.03% in October 2025, against a national average of 17.8%.

Development in the town centre is governed by the Core Development Area, which contains the Town Centre, Watford Gateway and Colne Valley strategic development areas. Eighty per cent of the homes allocated in the Local Plan sit inside it. In 2024/25 the Core Development Area took 53% of all completions, and the Watford Gateway area around the station took 309 homes on its own after taking none the year before. Density inside the area reached 283 homes per hectare against a minimum of 95.

One more thing that will change all of this

On 16 July 2026 the Government announced that Hertfordshire’s districts will be replaced by four unitary councils on 1 April 2028. Watford, Three Rivers and Hertsmere become South West Hertfordshire, with elections in May 2027.

Nothing about the Local Plan changes on that date by itself: an adopted plan stays in force until the new authority replaces it. But the plan-making, the five-year supply calculation and the planning register will eventually be run at the scale of three districts rather than one, and the Riverwell business plan already names reorganisation as a governance and finance risk to the council’s biggest scheme.

How to check an application yourself

Watford Borough Council’s public access planning register lives at pa.watford.gov.uk, which is where applications, documents, consultation dates and decisions are published. It returned a 403 refusal to every request made while this page was being written, so if it will not load for you either, the council’s planning pages carry the contact route, and committee reports with the full officer assessment of major schemes are published on watford.moderngov.co.uk.

Note the boundary. If your property is in Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Croxley Green, Abbots Langley or South Oxhey, your planning authority is Three Rivers District Council, not Watford. If it is in Bushey, Radlett or Borehamwood, it is Hertsmere Borough Council. All three become one authority in April 2028, but until then they run separate registers and separate plans.

Frequently asked questions

What is Watford’s Local Plan?

The Watford Local Plan 2021 to 2038, adopted on 17 October 2022. It sets a minimum of 13,328 new homes over the period, an average of 784 a year, and directs most of them to the Core Development Area covering the town centre, the station and the Colne Valley.

How many homes does Watford have to build?

784 a year, 13,328 in total by 2038. In 2024/25 the borough completed 691 net new homes, and in 2023/24 it completed 751.

Does Watford have a five-year housing land supply?

Yes. The council’s May 2025 statement puts it at 5.44 years, made up of 2,340 homes on live permissions, 1,427 on Local Plan allocations and a 790-home windfall allowance.

What are the biggest developments planned in Watford?

By number of homes, the four schemes waiting on section 106 agreements: 314 build-to-rent homes at the former police station on Shady Lane, 146 at Kytes Drive, 141 at 23-33 The Parade and 54 at Russell Lane. The largest single project is Riverwell, the 70-acre regeneration beside Watford General Hospital, which has delivered 579 homes and 255 senior living apartments so far.

When will the new Watford General Hospital be built?

Outline planning permission was granted in September 2023 and £12m of preparatory works began in 2025, but construction of the hospital is not expected to start until 2032 on the trust’s current timetable.

Who decides planning applications in Watford after 2028?

A new South West Hertfordshire unitary council, covering Watford, Three Rivers and Hertsmere, which takes over on 1 April 2028 with elections in May 2027.

Sources

• Watford Authority Monitoring Report 2025, published February 2026, for completions, permissions, lapse rates, affordable housing, densities, the named schemes and the Core Development Area figures.
• Watford Local Plan adoption statement for the adoption date, plan period and examination.
• Watford Local Plan and monitoring pages for the plan documents and the five-year supply statement.
• Watford Health Campus Partnership LLP (Riverwell) Business Plan 2026/27, Cabinet 9 February 2026 for the Riverwell figures.
• West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, investing in Watford for the hospital timetable and funding.
• Watford Borough Council, Lidl High Street lease for the town centre deal and vacancy rate.
• Watford Borough Council, Government announces four unitary authorities in Hertfordshire for reorganisation.

Planning positions move. Check any figure against the linked council documents before relying on it. What homes are actually selling for is on Watford house prices, and what the roads are doing is on Watford roadworks and travel.