A Liberal Democrat councillor in St Albans has said “there comes a time when we have to show leadership and say yes in my backyard” as the district council ratified its 14,603-home Local Plan.

A full meeting of St Albans City & District Council last week (Wednesday, October 16) voted to approve and ratify the plan, which is currently going through its Regulation 19 legal consultation before submission to the government.

Cllr Jacqui Taylor said the plan would provide 1,200 homes for social rent, with the “largest proportion” of those being three-bedroom homes.

She said: “Voting no is a vote to delay a home for those who need it the most.

“There comes a time when we have to show leadership and say 'yes in my backyard'. I will be voting for this Local Plan.”

The plan identifies sites for 14,603 new homes between 2024 and 2041, the number set by government as a target for the district over that period.

The Lib Dem-run council has sped up its Local Plan submission process with the aim of having a plan approved before a higher target proposed by the new Labour government is implemented.

Leader of the council, Cllr Paul De Kort, said: “This country faces a housing crisis that is multi-faceted, and one key element of it is building more homes.

“But we must have the right homes, in the right places, with the right infrastructure.

“This Local Plan has evolved with these key themes always in mind.”

He said it would bring “the first significant rise [in social housing] in over a generation”, giving younger people “a much greater chance of living in the area they grew up, whether as homeowners or tenants”.

But Cllr De Kort criticised the government for using “top down figures”, arguing that St Albans had “specific pressures” and “unique local constraints” including its motorways, the rail freight terminal, and the proposed “huge” expansion of Luton airport.

He said the plan included “more than £750 million of new infrastructure” alongside the homes and added: “For far too long, residents of this district have suffered from the collective failure to deliver an updated Local Plan that would have provided an effective shield against piecemeal, developer-led building.

“Further delay in submission would lead to a chaotic jumble of house-building which would fail to deliver the homes that people really need.”

Local Plans set out where homes in a district will be built, and which policies will be used to determine planning applications.

Councils without Local Plans in place find it harder to block developments from going ahead, and the Labour government has said it may intervene in council areas that do not build enough new homes. St Albans has the second-oldest Local Plan in the country, with the latest plan dating back to 1994.

Councillors from other parties raised concerns about the new plan. Cllr Matt Fisher said it was “not audacious enough to fundamentally combat the climate crisis”, while Cllr Teresa Heritage said she felt councillors had not “heard enough from residents”, and feedback from council officers, due to the sped up process.

Leader of the Labour group Cllr Emma Turnbull said: “Building on the outskirts of villages [such as London Colney] should not be a given, particularly when local resources and infrastructure do not support such plans.

“The country needs more housing. But where to build is a political choice, and we don’t agree with the choices made in this Local Plan.”

Cllr Matt Cowley said he is “genuinely pro-housebuilding” but insisted the plan was being “rushed through … without proper consideration of [other] potential sites” and “without any thought about what the Labour government might do next”.

He raised fears that the government would insist on the council “delivering another new Local Plan” in the near future, with a proposed 11,220 increase in the number of homes to be built by 2041.

Among the Liberal Democrat councillors to speak at the meeting was Cllr Robert Donald, who said the plan was the “lesser of two evils” after the government put the council “between a rock and a hard place”.

Cllr Anthony Rowlands said “probably everyone in this chamber has some misgivings”, and Cllr Edgar Hill said it would give the council “protection” and was “about getting the best hand we can for our residents with the rubbish cards we’ve been dealt”.

Councillors approved the plan by 43 votes to five, with the Green & Independent group and the Labour group voting against it.

The three Conservative councillors abstained.