Field Value
post_date 2026-10-08 10:24:02
post_title Tonbridge and Malling Local Plan: residents have until 25 October to comment in consultation the council was directed to hold
post_status publish
post_name tonbridge-malling-local-plan-regulation-19-consultation-closes-25-october

South East Water says its current infrastructure can support around 6,300 new homes in the borough — less than a third of the 19,746 the council’s draft Local Plan requires by 2042.

Residents across Tonbridge and Malling could face years of uncertainty over where and when new housing gets built, after South East Water warned that its existing supply plans cannot support the full scale of growth the council is proposing. The borough’s draft Local Plan sets out a requirement for 19,746 new homes by 2042 — roughly 1,097 a year — spread across more than 60 potential development locations. But according to BBC reporting of South East Water’s December 2025 response to the council’s consultation, the utility’s current forecasts can accommodate only about 6,318 additional homes. That’s a gap of more than 13,000 properties.

Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council posted about the issue on social media, acknowledging the mismatch directly.

South East Water identified supply-demand pressures in three water-resource zones that cover much of the area: Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and Cranbrook. The company said its Water Resources Management Plan 2024 — the long-term blueprint for how it manages supply and demand — was based on housing forecasts considerably lower than the council’s proposed numbers. Accommodating growth beyond those forecasts would require its assumptions and decision-making process to be recalculated from scratch.

The council says it has good reasons to press ahead with planning for this level of growth. Meeting the borough’s objectively assessed housing need — the government’s term for the number of homes an area genuinely requires, based on population and household data — demands a framework that links new development to investment in water, roads, schools and healthcare. According to the council, working through a formal Local Plan is the structured way to do that, rather than leaving decisions to ad hoc planning applications.

Councillors cited the same concern on 3 September, when they voted not to take the draft plan to its final, Regulation 19, consultation because they did not have confidence that South East Water could supply the additional homes. The Government then directed the council to hold the consultation, which runs until 11.59pm on Sunday 25 October.

Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council said it was working with South East Water and other relevant bodies to understand what infrastructure would be needed. Scrutiny discussions at the council recorded that further engagement with the Government and neighbouring authorities was also continuing. The Local Plan has not been finally adopted.

Key information

  • Regulation 19 consultation on the draft Local Plan: open until 11.59pm on Sunday 25 October 2026 (how to respond)
  • Housing requirement in the draft plan: 19,746 homes by 2042
  • South East Water’s estimate of homes its current plans can supply: about 6,318 (December 2025 response)
  • The earlier Regulation 18 consultation ran from 10 November 2025 to 2 January 2026