We are very pleased to have been invited to Hatfield Park this year for the Institutional Landowners Group Estate visit.  This will be a highly personalised visit, led by Anthony Downs, the Estate Director.  He will give you an insight to the estate’s approach to leading large development projects, involving regeneration of the railway station, new housing, commercial business park development as well as environmental management carried out in conjunction with tenants.

The estate and Old Hatfield are home to a growing mix of dynamic high-quality businesses ranging from startups to establish companies.  Old Hatfield is fast becoming a commercial hub and the estate hosts regular networking sessions and provides loyalty offers the Coach House Kitchen to tenants. The pandemic has seen an increasing number of businesses and residents wishing to relocate to Hatfield due to access to green space yet easy connectivity to London and Cambridge.

Most of the in-hand farming operations are arable and they remain committed to enhancing biodiversity, reduce carbon emissions, improving soil health and maintaining the landscape.  A large part of the estate is tenanted, and they work closely with tenants to meet joint objectives

The estate believe that local people should have a say in how their towns and villages develop and have worked with University of Hertfordshire to consider how new housing can be accommodated to sustain their community. 

The regeneration of Old Hatfield is an ambitious master-planning project that has been running over 10 years and also involved the upgrading of the Railway Station.  This estate also has plans up to 4,000 new homes and infrastructure by creating a new village, developing urban extensions and a science park.  The estate is working to enhance and monitor the ecology which has involved tree-planting, restoring many miles of hedgerow and establishing wildlife corridors around field edges and watercourses.

Programme
10.00am: Meet for coffee and cake at The Riding School Conference Centre, Hatfield Park.
10.30am: Introduction to Hatfield Park Estate, Hatfield House and the Gascoyne Cecil Estates
11.00am: Site Visits to Old Hatfield (on foot) and the wider estate (on coach)
1.30pm: Buffet lunch
2.30pm: Regular Institutional Landowners Meeting covering Energy and Housing, Leveling Up Bill, and the (agricultural) Tenancy Working Group
4.00pm Depart

Hatfield House will be open after the meeting for anyone that would like to visit

Whilst this is a CLA ILG visit it is recognised that many of the issues will be of interest to all CLA members, who are welcome to attend also.