Planning approved for a new community-focused neighbourhood in Leverstock Green

Planning permission has been granted by Dacorum Borough Council for a new neighbourhood of 75 homes in Leverstock Green. The two-hectare project at Westwick Row, being brought forward by TOWN and The Crown Estate, brings together two housing models: a cohousing community designed with its future residents, and homes for rent, 30% of which will be affordable. Homes are arranged in clusters around shared gardens, play spaces, green routes and a central public square. 

The cohousing element will include 31 homes arranged around a communal garden, with a common house at its centre providing a kitchen and dining room for shared meals, a living room, guest bedrooms and flexible spaces for everyday use. The model is intended to support a more sociable way of living, where residents know their neighbours, share resources and play an active role in the life of the neighbourhood. 

The scheme also includes a suburban rental model. Affordable homes will link rents to local incomes, aiming to provide high-quality, secure housing for a wider range of households while supporting long-term stability and choice. The rental neighbourhood draws on stewardship principles more commonly associated with cohousing, with shared spaces and everyday interaction helping to build a stronger sense of community. 

The project has been shaped through a participatory design process involving local residents, renters and future members of the cohousing community. More than 30 hours of structured workshops informed the layout of streets, homes, landscape and shared buildings, supported by wider public consultation across Leverstock Green. 

Designed by Periscope, Mole and Archio, the scheme is built around ambitious environmental targets, designed to reduce energy use and lower residents’ bills. Homes will be timber-framed, all-electric and highly insulated, with embodied carbon (A1–A5) targeted below 300kgCO₂/m² and projected operational energy use of 35kWh/m²/yr, aligning with LETI 2030. The landscape strategy retains and strengthens existing hedgerows, introduces extensive new tree planting and provides communal gardens, play areas and food-growing spaces. 

Rob Chesworth, Head of Strategic Land at The Crown Estate, said: “New housing should do more than provide homes. It should bring people together and create a strong sense of community. At Westwick Row, discounted market rents, community-led cohousing and low-carbon construction will come together to create a neighbourhood shaped around the people who will live there, providing them with greater choice at different stages of life. 

“By working with TOWN and future residents from the outset, we have been able to build innovative thinking into the development from the start. With planning now secured, our focus is on creating a thriving, sustainable neighbourhood for the future, and looking at how these models can be applied at a larger scale across the country.”  

Guy Rochez, Associate Director at TOWN, said:  “Securing planning permission for Westwick Row is an important step in bringing forward a different model of suburban development. Bringing together cohousing with a suburban rental model, we’re exploring how stronger communities and lower-impact living can be delivered at a wider scale.” 

The scheme will deliver 75 homes, a community hub, public open space and new walking and cycling connections linking the site to Leverstock Green and future neighbourhoods to the east of Hemel Hempstead.