Tandridge District Council resolved to withdraw the Local Plan on 18th April 2024 following an independent Inspector’s Report which concluded that the council needed to plan for adequate homes to better meet the needs of the area. The council have begun the process of producing a new Local Plan but do not anticipate this process will be completed until 2027. Since the withdrawn Local Plan was prepared, the Government has announced changes to the way of calculation the amount of housing to be planned for through local plans which are mean that the Council will need to deliver over double the number of homes than it had previously planned for.
The new national policy indicates the site, land west of Holland Road, may be considered as ‘grey belt’. Grey belt land is defined as land in the Green Belt which does not contribute strongly to the purposes of the Green Belt. Such sites also need to be well related to existing, sustainable settlements. Vitally, such sites will need to provide up to 50% of the homes as affordable housing, with an appropriate portion being social homes. In anticipation of these changes, we had begun discussions with housing associations who have confirmed their interest in this site.
Improvements to and access to existing and new public open space would also feature as part of ‘grey belt’ proposals, a principle we have also sought to incorporate into our proposals.