East Herts has signed a three year deal with landlord SNG at Sele Farm. It lets the council hand over plots at nil cost, and says it is not legally binding.

East Herts Council has signed an agreement with one of the country’s larger housing associations over the future of the Sele Farm estate in Hertford. The decision was published on 19 August 2026.

The agreement is with Sovereign Network Group, known as SNG. It is a memorandum of understanding rather than a contract, and the council has published the full signed text alongside the decision. Reading it is worth the ten minutes, because it commits the council to considering something its own press summary does not mention: handing over council land for nothing.

What the two sides have agreed to pursue

The memorandum sets out three objectives:

  • active promotion of local resident and stakeholder engagement, creating opportunities to develop proposals that have the support of local residents
  • an increase in the overall supply of new and genuinely affordable housing
  • improvement in the quality of the local environment, including maximising biodiversity

Under the document, SNG will lead a consultation with residents to produce a vision for Sele Farm, identify opportunities to deliver affordable housing, and seek grant funding. Any market housing is to be included only to cross-subsidise and maximise affordable provision.

The land clause

The council’s side of the bargain is shorter, and it is the part that matters most to anyone who lives there.

The council agrees to assess, at what the document calls suitable and regular intervals, the case for offering plots of land within the Sele Farm area to SNG for acquisition at either market value or below market value, including nil cost. That is subject to the consents and regulations that apply to local authority disposals.

In plain terms: publicly owned land at Sele Farm could be transferred to a housing association for nothing, if the council decides the case stacks up. Nothing has been transferred yet, and the memorandum does not identify a single plot.

The document says it is binding, and also that it is not

Two clauses sit three paragraphs apart and point in opposite directions.

Clause 2.3.1 records that both parties acknowledge “this Agreement is binding on both of them”. Clause 2.6 then states: “For the avoidance of doubt, the Parties do not intend this Agreement to be legally binding.”

The practical effect is that the objectives are a statement of intent. Neither side can be made to build anything, transfer anything or fund anything under this document. That is normal for a memorandum of understanding. It is worth knowing before treating the announcement as a delivery promise.

The dates that follow

Key dates in the East Herts and SNG memorandum of understanding Timeline. 2 June 2026: East Herts Executive approves the objectives in principle and delegates signing. 13 August 2026: the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods agrees by email. 19 August 2026: the Director for Communities decision to sign is published. Around 19 November 2026: the parties are to endeavour to agree heads of terms, three months from the agreement. Around August 2029: the collaboration period ends, three years from the agreement. 30 April 2032 is a backstop date the agreement can only reach if extended. The three year clock started when the deal was signed Dates set out in the memorandum of understanding and the officer decision record. 2 Jun 2026 Executive approves in principle 19 Aug 2026 Decision to sign published About 19 Nov 2026 Heads of terms for the first steps to be agreed (three months) About Aug 2029 Collaboration period ends (three years) 30 Apr 2032 Backstop, only if extended The collaboration period ends on the EARLIER of 30 April 2032 and three years from the agreement, so the 2032 date cannot be reached unless both sides extend. Source: memorandum of understanding, clauses 1.1 and 2.5, and the officer decision record of 19 August 2026. Graphic by Bishop's Stortford News
The published memorandum is undated on its face. The decision to sign it was taken on 19 August 2026.

The next checkpoint is the nearest one. The two sides are to endeavour to agree heads of terms for the first steps of the project within three months of the date of the agreement, which puts it in November.

The collaboration period itself runs to the earlier of 30 April 2032 and three years from the agreement. Because the deal was signed in August 2026, the three year limb bites first. On its own terms the arrangement expires in 2029 unless both sides agree in writing to extend it.

A team of six, chaired by SNG

The memorandum sets up a joint team of six representatives, three appointed by each side. SNG chairs the meetings and sets the agenda. The team is to meet at least every two months.

The council’s three are led by Jonathan Geall, its Director for Communities, who took the decision to sign under authority delegated by the Executive on 2 June. Cllr Mione Goldspink, Executive Member for Neighbourhoods, gave her agreement by email on 13 August 2026. The decision was recorded as a non-key decision and was not subject to call in.

Written to survive the end of East Herts Council

Hertfordshire’s district councils are being replaced by unitary authorities, and the council is open about the reason for putting this in writing now. The decision record says the Executive considered it important that the objectives and the mechanism for joint working be documented in a form “that can pass to the new successor unitary authority, thus minimising the risk of any loss of momentum during the local government reorganisation process”.

Clause 18 states that the agreement is intended to continue to bind any successor organisation to either party. That intention has to be read against clause 2.6, which says the document is not intended to be legally binding at all.

The charter that was the condition, and is not published

The Executive did not approve signing outright in June. It said more work was needed first, “notably the drawing up of a customer care charter by SNG to make clear what levels of service their customers could expect”.

The decision record says that charter has now been produced, specifically for SNG’s customers in East Herts and with input from the council, and that the Executive Member was content with it. The charter itself is not among the documents published with the decision. Only the officer report and the memorandum were released.

What the regulator says about SNG

That charter condition reads differently once you check SNG’s standing with the Regulator of Social Housing, which publishes a judgement on every large landlord in England.

SNG’s current grades, confirmed in a stability check published on 28 January 2026, are:

  • Consumer: C2. The regulator’s view is that there are “some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed”. This grade dates from a full inspection in May 2025.
  • Governance: G1. The landlord meets the regulator’s governance requirements.
  • Viability: V2. It meets the viability requirements and can handle a reasonable range of adverse scenarios, but needs to manage material risks to ensure continued compliance.

The May 2025 inspection found “weaknesses in the provision of an effective, efficient and timely repairs service”, and said the service was improving but “not yet at target levels”. It also found SNG “has not yet been able to meet complaints handling timescales, due in part to the weaknesses in its repairs service”. On tenant scrutiny, a newly formed panel was in place after the merger but the regulator was “unable to evidence the effectiveness” of it.

The same inspection recorded evidence-based assurance on tenant health and safety, accurate stock condition records from an accelerated survey programme, transparent lettings and allocations, and work with local partners on anti-social behaviour.

SNG is registered with the Regulator of Social Housing under number 4837 and is a charitable registered society with its head office in Basingstoke.

What it means for you

If you rent from SNG at Sele Farm, nothing changes today. No homes are being sold, demolished or built under this document, and no land has moved. What has been agreed is a framework and a timetable.

Three things are worth watching.

  • November. Heads of terms for the first steps are due about three months from signing. That is the first point at which the intention turns into a proposal with a shape.
  • The consultation. SNG, not the council, is to lead the resident consultation that frames any future proposals. The document gives no date for it.
  • Any land disposal. If the council does move to offer plots at below market value or nil cost, that is a decision with its own report and its own publication requirements. It would appear in the council’s decisions register.

Sele Farm sits in Hertford, in the East Herts district, so district planning applications for the area appear in the weekly list. We track those on our Bishop’s Stortford planning news page, and the district’s average prices are on our house prices page.

Sources