New garden settlements across Hemel Hempstead and St Albans have received £750,000 in funding.
Money for the 11,000 home and 10,000 job Hemel Garden Communities has been awarded to Dacorum Borough Council (DBC) by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Developments proposed in the St Albans district council (SADC) Local Plan, at North and East Hemel Hempstead, are encompassed in these communities.
The whole proposal lies roughly equally between DBC and SADC regions, and has been devised together with The Crown Estate, which owns land near Redbourn.
Minister of State for Housing, North West Hampshire MP Kit Malthouse, said: “This new development has the enviable benefit of being close to both Hemel Hempstead and St Albans, two towns with so much to offer the local community and the wider economy.
“And these new homes will only enhance these existing town centres.”
Submitted in November 2018, the funding bid was picked out of hundreds across the country to be one of just five successful applications.
The share of £3.7million will be used to fast-track specialist survey and planning works necessary for the new development.
Other successful bids include Grazeley Garden Settlement, Tewkesbury Ashchurch Garden Community, North Uttlesford Garden Community, and West of Braintree Garden Community.
Portfolio holder for planning at SADC, Cllr Mary Maynard, said: “I think it is marvellous that it has got funding because this is a huge initiative the district councils would not be able to fund without external funding.
“It is exciting, it will enable people in the community to have a say because the first thing we know about it is they will have a chance to have a say in a consultation.”
She said it will be like the design charrettes for new leisure centres around the district - at Harpenden, Batchwood, Cotlandswick, and Westminster Lodge - but on a much bigger scale.
Adding: “We have a chance to build communities that people will love to live in.”
The five newly funded schemes, announced on March 25, join 23 existing garden communities already supported by the government.
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