Sevenoaks District Council has published a revised Local Plan, raising its housing target to 17,460 homes and adding sites at Broke Hill golf course, Brittains Lane and London Road. A six-week public consultation opens on 23 July.

Sevenoaks District Council has revised its draft Local Plan upward, raising the number of new homes it must find room for to 17,460 over 15 years and adding several large sites, including 810 homes on the former Broke Hill golf course near Halstead. The council published the revised plan on Tuesday 23 June and says a Government overhaul of Green Belt rules forced it to find more land than the version residents commented on last autumn. (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers updated Local Plan to meet Government housing target)

The plan goes to the council’s Development and Infrastructure Advisory Committee on 30 June and then to Cabinet on 7 July. If members agree, a six-week public consultation, the formal Regulation 19 stage, will run from 23 July to 17 September. This is the last chance for residents to comment before the plan is sent to a Government planning inspector for examination, expected in 2027. (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers updated Local Plan to meet Government housing target)

What has changed

The headline figure has gone up. When the council consulted residents between October and December 2025, at the earlier Regulation 18 stage, the Government target was 17,175 homes, which the council described at the time as a 63 per cent increase on the previous requirement. (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers how to meet increased Government housing targets through its Local Plan) The revised plan now sets the target at 17,460 homes over 15 years, which works out at around 1,164 a year. (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers updated Local Plan to meet Government housing target)

The council blames the change on national policy. It says the Government created a new “Grey Belt” category that removed many longstanding Green Belt protections, which in turn opened up land the council had previously discounted. Cllr Nigel Williams, the Cabinet Member for Development and Infrastructure, said: “During the time we produced a new Local Plan and sought residents’ views, the Government has moved the goalposts again.” (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers updated Local Plan to meet Government housing target)

The council has consistently said it cannot opt out. As Cllr Williams put it during the earlier round, “We cannot delay or stop the new Local Plan, as it is a Government-led process initiated by the secretary of state.” (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers how to meet increased Government housing targets through its Local Plan)

The new and changed sites

The revised plan adds a number of sites that were not in the version residents saw last year, according to the council’s own summary. (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers updated Local Plan to meet Government housing target) The largest are:

  • Broke Hill Golf Course, near Halstead and Knockholt: 810 homes. The course off London Road closed in December 2017 and sits in the Green Belt. The developer Quinn Estates has long sought to build here; Kent Online reports the scheme as more than 800 homes including a retirement village and a care home. (Kent Online, Concern over wildlife at site earmarked for 800-plus homes at Broke Hill Golf Club)
  • 160 London Road, Sevenoaks: 300 homes, through conversion of the “One 60” office building.
  • Brittains Lane, Sevenoaks: 228 homes.
  • Land north of Glyn Davies Close, Dunton Green: 10 homes.
  • Goss Hill Lodge, Clement Street, Hextable: 20 Gypsy and Traveller pitches.
  • Land west of Old Otford Road: 12,000 square metres of employment space.

One scheme has come out. The council says it has removed the proposed Wasps Rugby Club stadium because there was not enough information to show the supporting infrastructure was suitable. (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers updated Local Plan to meet Government housing target)

How the plan reached this point

The autumn 2025 consultation drew a large response. The council says around 5,000 people and organisations took part, with a further 1,150 attending 30 face-to-face pop-up sessions across 10 locations in the district. (Sevenoaks District Council, Council thanks communities for supporting Local Plan consultation) Officers have since analysed those comments and redrawn the plan against the new national rules.

The sites in the plan were all put forward by landowners and developers and then assessed by the council for whether they are suitable, available and deliverable, rather than chosen by councillors from scratch. (Sevenoaks District Council, Council considers how to meet increased Government housing targets through its Local Plan) The full background on the timetable and the earlier figures is in our Sevenoaks planning news round-up.

What it means for residents

Once adopted, the Local Plan sets the framework against which individual planning applications near your home are judged, so the allocations in it matter well beyond the headline total. If you live near any of the named sites, the Regulation 19 consultation from 23 July to 17 September is the formal point to make your views known before the plan goes to examination.

You can read the current documents and follow the consultation on the council’s Emerging Local Plan pages. To check live applications on a specific street or address, including any that come forward on these sites, use the council’s planning portal; our guide to Sevenoaks planning applications explains how to search it. For how housing growth feeds through to your bill, see our explainer on Sevenoaks council tax bands.

Sources

Image: Broke Hill Golf Course by N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.