Hereford planning: 27,600 homes and a bypass in December

Herefordshire planning is currently defined by three things: a housing target that roughly doubled overnight, a Local Plan that was thrown out and started again because of it, and a phosphate rule that has limited what can be built in the north of the county since 2019.

Underneath all of it is the bypass, which now has a construction date for the first time in years.

The Local Plan was abandoned and restarted

Herefordshire Council had been preparing a Local Plan for 2021 to 2041 and had run public consultations on it between 2022 and 2024. In December 2024 it decided to cease further work on the draft Regulation 18 Local Plan.

The reason was the Government’s rewrite of the National Planning Policy Framework that month, which changed the standard method every council must use to calculate how many homes it needs to plan for. Herefordshire’s number went up so far that the draft strategy could no longer accommodate it, and the council concluded it had to start the plan again rather than patch the old one.

How many homes, exactly

The council has published two versions of the number, and it is worth knowing both because you will meet both.

In its Call for Sites launched on 26 June 2025, the council said the county needed 27,600 new homes over 20 years, on a plan period of 2025 to 2045. In a November 2025 update it gave the figure as a 20-year housing requirement of 27,260 dwellings.

Either way the annual number is between 1,363 and 1,380 homes a year, which is roughly 26 a week, every week, for two decades, in a county of about 193,000 people.

The council is not looking for exactly that much land. It says it wants to identify sufficient land to accommodate 30,000 dwellings, the extra being flexibility for sites that stall or never come forward. And in the Call for Sites it made clear it must consider all options, explicitly including land for new or expanded settlements, which is the phrase councils use when the existing towns cannot absorb the total.

The Call for Sites portal remains open. The first tranche of submissions closed on 31 January 2026 and later assessment rounds will follow.

The phosphate problem has not gone away

The other constraint on building here is not national policy but a river.

Natural England first wrote to Herefordshire Council in July 2019, advising that the council could not rely on its Nutrient Management Plan to offset the phosphate load of new development. The effect is that any development in the River Lugg catchment, which covers the north of the county, must demonstrate nutrient neutrality before a Habitats Regulations Assessment can be signed off. The same applies in a smaller way in the River Clun catchment on the Shropshire border.

The council’s route round it is phosphate credits, generated by wetlands it has built at Luston and Tarrington and sold to developers as mitigation. Its most recent published position, dated March 2025, said it had released 247.9kg of credits, that these had unlocked planning permission for 797 new homes in the north of the county, that credits had been offered for a further 360 homes, and that 184 homes on the list had not yet been allocated any.

Two honest caveats on those figures. They are the council’s own last published statement rather than a live count, and the council has flagged that its whole nutrient management section is currently under review and some information may need updating. If you have an application in the Lugg catchment, the numbers on the website are a starting point, not an answer.

The scale is worth holding next to the housing target. Roughly 800 homes have been released by the credit scheme in six years. The new Local Plan needs to find room for around 27,600.

The bypass now has a date

The scheme that the council says unlocks the rest of it is the Hereford bypass, and it has moved further this year than at any time since 2021.

Planning permission for Phase One is secured, and construction is scheduled to begin in December 2026. Phase One connects the A465 to the A49 and directly serves the Rotherwas employment area. A second phase would complete the route around the city and add a second crossing of the Wye, and has no timetable.

The council’s stated case, on its own page, is that up to 14,000 new homes and 150 hectares of employment land cannot be delivered without the bypass, that it would create around 10,000 jobs, and that the A49 through the city is one of the worst congestion points in England outside the south east, with peak delays of 20 to 40 minutes. That page also links to a “Back the Bypass” campaign, so treat the benefit figures as the council’s argument rather than as independent findings. The permission and the December start date are the verifiable parts.

For what the construction means for driving in the city, see our roadworks and travel page.

The council’s own building projects have slipped and got dearer

Two of the biggest schemes in the city centre are the council’s own, and in June 2026 it published an update that was frank about both.

Hereford Museum and Art Gallery on Broad Street had an original budget of £20.5 million. Additional costs of up to around £14.5 million were identified, against revised funding of £20.8 million, made up of £8.4 million from the council, £5 million from the Stronger Towns Fund and £5 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The expected total is now in the region of £24.4 million, and construction is expected to start in summer 2027. The council cited structural issues in the Grade II-listed building, construction cost inflation and rising delivery costs.

The Shirehall project has a budget of £8.5 million including £2.6 million from the Stronger Towns Fund, and is on the same timetable, with construction expected from summer 2027 and the library moving from the Assembly Room to Court Room Two.

The council’s position is that “revised schemes are being developed that retain the core ambition of both projects while ensuring they can be delivered in a financially responsible and sustainable way”, which is the language of a scheme being cut to fit its funding.

How to look up a planning application in Herefordshire

Worth saying plainly, because Herefordshire does not work like most councils.

There is no Idox public access portal here. No publicaccess, planning or pa subdomain exists, and there is no weekly list page of validated applications of the kind most district councils publish. The council’s planning search is an in-house map application: you find applications by looking at the map rather than by browsing a list.

If you are trying to find out what has been applied for near you, the map is the tool, and it is worth learning rather than hunting for a list page that does not exist.

Common questions

How many houses does Herefordshire have to build?

Between 27,260 and 27,600 over 20 years, depending on which of the council’s own published figures you take, which is about 1,363 to 1,380 a year. The council says it wants to identify enough land for 30,000 to allow for sites that do not come forward.

Why did Herefordshire’s Local Plan start again?

Because the Government rewrote the National Planning Policy Framework in December 2024, changing the standard method for calculating housing need and pushing Herefordshire’s requirement up sharply. The council decided that month to cease work on its draft Regulation 18 Local Plan for 2021 to 2041 and prepare a new plan instead, now running to 2045.

What is the phosphate rule in Herefordshire?

Since Natural England’s advice of July 2019, development in the River Lugg catchment must demonstrate nutrient neutrality for phosphates before it can be permitted. The council sells phosphate credits from wetlands at Luston and Tarrington as mitigation. As at March 2025 it had released 247.9kg of credits, unlocking 797 homes.

When does the Hereford bypass start?

December 2026 for Phase One, which connects the A465 to the A49 and serves Rotherwas. Planning permission for that phase is secured. Phase Two has no construction date.

When will Hereford Museum and Art Gallery reopen?

No reopening date has been published. Construction is expected to start in summer 2027, on a scheme now expected to cost in the region of £24.4 million.

Where can I see Herefordshire planning applications?

On the council’s planning search, which is a map rather than a list. Herefordshire is not on the Idox public access system used by most councils, and does not publish a weekly list page.

Related

• Hereford roadworks, parking and travel: the bypass construction and the £37m road programme.
• Hereford house prices: the price data that feeds the standard method behind the housing target.
• Hereford to London trains: the Transport Hub and what the commute costs.
• Things to do in Hereford: including what is open while the museum is shut.

Sources

• Herefordshire Council, Local Plan 2021-2041 for the December 2024 decision to cease work on the draft Regulation 18 plan and the reason for it.
• Herefordshire Council, Call for Sites 2025 for the 27,600-home figure, the 2025 to 2045 plan period, the 26 June 2025 launch, the 31 January 2026 first-tranche deadline and the reference to new or expanded settlements.
• Herefordshire Council, further call for sites for future county homes, November 2025, for the 27,260-dwelling requirement and the aim of identifying land for 30,000.
• Herefordshire Council, development in the River Lugg catchment area for the July 2019 Natural England advice and the nutrient neutrality requirement, and phosphate credits, Lugg catchment for the March 2025 credit position, the 247.9kg released and the 797 homes permitted.
• Herefordshire Council, Hereford Bypass for the Phase One planning permission, the December 2026 construction date, the route and the council’s stated benefits.
• Herefordshire Council, update on Shirehall and Hereford Museum and Art Gallery projects, June 2026, for the budgets, the additional costs, the funding sources and the summer 2027 construction dates.
• Herefordshire Council, planning search for the county’s map-based application register.

Planning timetables move, and Herefordshire’s Local Plan does not yet have a published submission or adoption date. The council has also flagged that its nutrient management pages are under review. Check the linked sources before relying on any figure here.