A block on some forms of housebuilding in Chesham, Amersham, and other areas is to be lifted under a new plan that has been approved by Buckinghamshire Council.

The housing moratorium – which also covers Wendover and the eastern edge of Aylesbury – was introduced in 2022 to protect Ashridge Commons, which are part of the 2,000-hectare Ashridge Estate.

Natural England placed the moratorium within a 12.6km zone of influence around the commons, inside which many planning applications were restricted until a mitigation strategy was put forward by the council.

The council has now put forward a strategy for this, which was approved by cabinet members during a meeting this week.

Councillor Peter Strachan, the cabinet member for planning and regeneration, told the meeting that the plans were a ‘tried and tested method’ for ‘resolving harm to a protected site’, which was supported by Natural England.

He said: “Colleagues will know there has been a moratorium on new housebuilding in the vicinity of Ashridge Commons for more than two years.

“What is recommended by the report is to establish a strategy with a means of unblocking this moratorium and allowing new housebuilding to proceed.”

He said similar plans had been put in place neighbouring Dacorum Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council and were ‘operating efficiently’.

The mitigation strategy is in two parts, the first of which is a payment made by developers to the National Trust, which owns Ashridge Commons, for mitigation to prevent further harm.

The second part of the strategy would require new housing development to provide suitable alternative natural greenspace – known as ‘SANG’ in planning – to divert people away from the Commons.

Cllr Strachan added: “This two-part strategy will allow housebuilding to resume. The consequences of not approving this strategy would result in the council not being able to maintain our housing land supply, with the associated risk of speculative and unplanned development.”

Neighbouring Dacorum Borough Council said there were ‘clear and widespread issues’ at Ashridge Common and Woods Special Area of Conservation, which had the ‘potential to undermine the conservation objectives for the site, through damage, contamination and fire risk’.

Council leader Martin Tett told the cabinet meeting: “[The moratorium] has been a major inhibitor on housing development across much of the county because of the impact that new housing would have in the Ashridge estate in particular.

“The approach proposed here will hopefully mitigate that in a way that maintains the environment but also allows some agreeable housebuilding as well.”