Tunbridge Wells planning news: 12,204 homes by 2038

Tunbridge Wells borough has a new Local Plan for the first time since 2006. Full Council adopted the Tunbridge Wells Borough Local Plan 2020-2038 on Wednesday 10 December 2025, ending an examination that began when the plan was submitted in November 2021. It replaces the 2006 Local Plan, the 2010 Core Strategy and the 2016 Site Allocations Local Plan, and it is now the document every planning application in the borough is judged against. (Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Adopted Borough Local Plan)

The headline number is a minimum of 12,204 dwellings between 2020 and 2038, which is 678 a year over 18 years, plus 14 hectares of employment land. That is not a figure the council chose. It is the Government’s standard method output for this borough, and the council concluded there were no exceptional circumstances to depart from it. (Adopted Local Plan, paragraphs 4.8 to 4.10 and Policy STR 1)

The unusual part is what happened next. The plan the council submitted included a new village at Tudeley. The Inspector’s examination removed it, and the plan that was adopted therefore does not meet the borough’s own housing need. The council has written its own homework into the policy: an early review, starting within six months of adoption.

The plan is short by about 1,382 homes

Once completions, existing permissions, windfall allowances and every allocated site are added up, the adopted plan produces 10,605 to 11,040 dwellings against a target of 12,204. Taking the mid-point of the site ranges, the plan falls 1,382 dwellings short, which the council puts at 11.3 per cent of the full need to 2038. (Adopted Local Plan, paragraphs 4.54 to 4.55)

Policy STR 1 puts the review on a clock. The council must publish an updated Local Development Scheme, the review must commence within six months of adoption, and an updated plan must be submitted for examination no later than 30 months from the start of the review. The review will look at ways of meeting the unmet need, and will consider sites put forward through a Call for Sites and through the council’s land availability assessment. (Adopted Local Plan, Policy STR 1 and paragraphs 4.49 to 4.50)

In practice that means the argument about where homes go in this borough restarts almost immediately. The council is running the review under Local Plan Review 2026, including a Call for Sites, which is the stage at which landowners nominate fields.

Where the homes are allocated

Table 4 of the adopted plan sets out allocations by parish and settlement. The figures are ranges, because densities on large sites are set later through masterplanning.

Source: Adopted Local Plan, Table 4. Bidborough is the only settlement in the borough with a nil allocation.

Paddock Wood and east Capel: 2,450 homes in five parcels

The single biggest thing in the plan is Policy STR/SS 1, the expansion of Paddock Wood westwards into east Capel. It provides for approximately 2,450 dwellings plus infrastructure, laid out on garden settlement principles, and it is delivered as five parcels:

• North Western parcel: about 770 dwellings
• North Eastern parcel: about 600 dwellings
• South Eastern parcel: about 560 dwellings
• South Western parcel: about 520 dwellings
• Northern parcel: about 4.25 hectares of employment land

Development is to be co-ordinated through an overarching Structure Plan for the whole expansion and masterplans for each area. The 2,450 figure excludes the 300 homes already permitted at Church Farm, and the town centre policy adds about 30 more. (Adopted Local Plan, Policy STR/SS 1 and paragraphs 5.216 to 5.217)

Paddock Wood already absorbed roughly 1,000 homes in recent years at Mascalls Court Farm (375), Mascalls Farm (309, with a further 115 allocated in this plan) and Church Farm (300). Flood risk runs through all of it: the plan requires the expansion to deliver flood risk solutions, not just avoid making things worse.

Making it possible meant taking land out of the Metropolitan Green Belt. 148.194 hectares were removed at Paddock Wood and east Capel, equal to 2.077 per cent of the borough’s Green Belt. Smaller releases around Royal Tunbridge Wells, Pembury and Speldhurst take the total de-designated to 3.046 per cent. (Adopted Local Plan, paragraphs 4.124 to 4.128 and Table 6)

What the plan does in the town

For Royal Tunbridge Wells itself the strategy is less about new estates and more about the town centre and the northern employment edge. Policy STR 1 provides for a new business park north of North Farm and Kingstanding Way, connected to the improved A21, and sets a framework for a holistic Area Plan for the town centre. Green Belt land was released at Caenwood Farm on Speldhurst Road, the former Wyevale garden centre on Eridge Road, Spratsbrook Farm, Longfield Road and north of Hawkenbury Recreation Ground.

The other pressure on open land in the town is not in the plan at all. The Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons are privately owned and are for sale, and the Friends of the Commons are trying to raise the money to buy them for the community. The Commons Conservators set out the position and the sale documents on their own site. (Tunbridge Wells Commons Conservators, The Commons are for Sale)

How the examination ran

Source: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Adopted Borough Local Plan overview.

Following live applications yourself

Strategic policy is one thing, the application on the field behind your house is another. Tunbridge Wells runs its planning register on the shared MidKent Public Access portal, where you can search by address or postcode, read the officer documents and comment inside the consultation period. The weekly list of newly validated applications is the fastest way to see what has just come in.

In the week to 7 August 2026 that list ran from tree work at Newlands Road and Blatchington Road in Royal Tunbridge Wells to two non-material amendments at Mascalls Farm in Paddock Wood, which is what the build-out of a strategic site looks like week to week: a stream of small consents rather than one big decision.

What it means for you

• The plan is adopted, so it carries full weight. An application that conflicts with it now starts from a much weaker position than it did in 2024.
• If you live in Paddock Wood, Capel or Five Oak Green, the principle is settled. The arguments left are about layout, flood works, schools, roads and phasing, which is what the Structure Plan and masterplans decide.
• If you live anywhere else in the borough, the early review is the one to watch. The plan is 1,382 homes short and the council is legally committed to finding them. Sites that were rejected or never submitted last time will be put forward again through the Call for Sites.
• Comment at plan stage, not just at application stage. Once a site is allocated, refusing the application that follows is very hard.
• Check the weekly list, not the newspaper. Most decisions are taken by officers under delegated powers and never reach a committee.

Related pages on this site: Tunbridge Wells house prices and trains to London.

Sources: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Adopted Borough Local Plan; Tunbridge Wells Borough Local Plan 2020-2038, adopted December 2025 (Policy STR 1, Policy STR/SS 1, Tables 3, 4 and 6, paragraphs 4.8 to 4.10, 4.49 to 4.55, 4.124 to 4.128, 5.216 to 5.217); Tunbridge Wells Local Plan Review 2026, Call for Sites; MidKent Public Access planning portal; Tunbridge Wells Commons Conservators, The Commons are for Sale.