Landowners in the Sevenoaks District area are being urged to get in touch to discuss their options after the High Court threw out a challenge by Sevenoaks District Council to the Planning Inspector’s findings on its proposed local plan. The findings which were first published in March 2020 concluded the Sevenoaks Local Plan was ‘not legally compliant’ and should not be adopted.
The council had estimated in February 2019 that it needed to build 698 homes a year between 2015 and 2035 to meet the projected housing demand, a total of 13,960 over the 20-year period.
The plan which was submitted to the inspector for examination in April 2019 only had housing supply for 10,568 homes over the 20-year period.
Tom French, Director at BTF Partnership comments: “This is an opportunity for landowners with sites which have not yet been considered as well as those which were not included in the draft local plan to look again at the options for them over the next 20 years. Sevenoaks Council has a responsibility to provide sufficient housing and it will now need to go back to the drawing board to make changes to meet this need or liaise with neighbouring authorities who might be willing to cooperate with it to help it to meet the shortfall. Either way it is important to review your land holdings in the borough to understand how they might be affected.”
Tom French can be contacted at tom.french@btfpartnership.co.uk T: 01233 740077 or www.btfpartnership.co.uk