Building has begun on 60 homes on part of the former White Oak Leisure Centre site in Swanley. The council-backed scheme, built by Skillcrown, helps pay back the cost of the £22m leisure centre that opened in 2022.

Building work has started on 60 new homes on part of the former White Oak Leisure Centre site in Swanley, with councillors and the developer marking the start with a ground breaking ceremony on 1 July. The scheme, being built by Skillcrown in partnership with Sevenoaks District Council, is designed partly to help pay back the borrowing the council took on to build the town’s new £22 million leisure centre, which opened in 2022. (Sevenoaks District Council, Spades in the ground for White Oak housing scheme)

What is being built

The development is for 60 homes: 15 three-bedroom town houses with gardens and 45 one- and two-bedroom flats. Every home will have a car parking space, with visitor parking and secure cycle storage across the site, and a public path will run through it linking Hilda May Avenue to Juniper Walk. (Sevenoaks District Council, White Oak residential housing scheme)

The council says the homes will be built to high environmental and sustainability standards, with solar panels, air source heat pumps and high levels of insulation, alongside a shared community garden and green landscaping. (Sevenoaks District Council, Spades in the ground for White Oak housing scheme)

Councillor Michael Horwood, the Cabinet Member for Improvement and Innovation, said: “As councils get no significant Government funding to achieve the rebuilding of aged leisure centres, the development of this site was critical in the business case to secure a new White Oak Leisure Centre for Swanley. We are delivering a mix of new homes built to high environmental and sustainability standards on previously developed land, whilst also providing a new community garden and green landscaping as part of the scheme.”

Matt Arnold, Land and Development Director at Skillcrown, said: “We were delighted to welcome councillors and project partners to White Oak to mark this important early milestone. Skillcrown is pleased to be working in partnership with Sevenoaks District Council to deliver this exciting scheme for Swanley. The development will make good use of a brownfield site, provide much-needed new homes and help support the wider regeneration of the area around the new leisure centre.” (Sevenoaks District Council, Spades in the ground for White Oak housing scheme)

How it pays for the leisure centre

Unlike the council’s affordable-housing projects, these are market homes, and it is the income from selling them that matters to the wider scheme. Councils get no significant Government grant to rebuild ageing leisure centres, so the receipts from the White Oak homes were built into the business case for the new £22 million White Oak Leisure Centre, helping to repay the money the council borrowed to deliver it. (Sevenoaks District Council, White Oak residential housing scheme)

The homes sit on land the council already owned next to the leisure centre off Hilda May Avenue, so the scheme reuses a brownfield site rather than building on open countryside.

The planning history

Planning permission for the homes was granted at a Development Management Committee meeting in November 2025, subject to conditions, according to Kent Online. (Kent Online, Plans for apartments and homes on former White Oak Leisure Centre site in Swanley approved) The decision was published on the council’s planning portal on 12 January 2026. (Sevenoaks District Council, White Oak residential housing scheme)

What it means for you

For people in Swanley, the visible change is a working building site on the old leisure-centre land, with the completed homes adding to the supply of houses and flats on the northern edge of the district. The council’s argument is that the sale of these homes is part of how residents got a new leisure centre without a direct Government grant, so the two projects are tied together.

If you want to follow the detail of the scheme or any conditions attached to it, you can look up the application and its documents on the council’s planning portal. Our guide to Sevenoaks planning applications explains how to search by address or reference and how to comment on new proposals near you. For how the council funds services more widely, see our guide to Sevenoaks council tax bands, and for more around the district, things to do in Sevenoaks.

Sources

Image: The former White Oak Leisure Centre in Swanley, on part of whose old site the new homes are being built. Photo by N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.