Kent council area

Selling Land in Medway

Medway faces the largest Housing Delivery Test requirement of any council in Kent and has not adopted a local plan since 2003. With delivery at 60% and its Local Plan to 2041 now in front of inspectors, landowners in the towns, on their edges and on the Hoo Peninsula face a planning picture that is changing quickly.

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Medway at a Glance

Medway Council is a unitary authority covering Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham, the villages of Cuxton and Halling in the Medway valley, and the Hoo Peninsula, with Hoo St Werburgh, Cliffe, High Halstow, Allhallows and Grain.

Delivery at 60%. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 recorded 60% of the homes needed over three years, against the largest requirement in Kent.
An old plan. The last adopted Local Plan dates from 2003, and two earlier attempts to replace it failed before the current one.
A new plan at examination. The Medway Local Plan 2041 was submitted in December 2025 and public hearings began on 15 September 2026.
Very little Green Belt. The council's June 2025 Green Belt Review puts it at 4.98% of Medway's land, north west of Strood and north west of Cuxton and Halling, because the Metropolitan Green Belt largely stops at the borough's western boundary.

Put together, that means the unmet need route in national policy applies across almost all of Medway, the council is relying heavily on regeneration land inside the towns, and the edges of the towns are being tested through the plan.

Why You Will See 24,540 and 26,176 Homes

Two totals for the plan circulate. Local reporting of the draft in June 2025 gave a need of 24,540 homes over 15 years, 1,636 a year, and Future Medway still used that figure when the hearings opened. The council's own announcement on submission describes the plan as providing 26,176 homes by 2041. The most likely explanation is that one is the need and the other the supply: plans normally identify more land than the requirement, as a margin in case some sites stall. Either way, Medway has to deliver more than 1,600 homes a year from a starting point of 60%, which is why well placed land keeps its value to the council whatever the final figure.

Medway in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
60%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Homes built against homes needed
3,017
of 5,000 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
None listed
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
Submitted for examination
As at December 2025.

Sources: Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement, MHCLG, published 17 August 2026; Local plans: monitoring progress, Planning Inspectorate, August 2026. Local plans move quickly, so always check the council's own website for the latest position.

Land Inside the Towns

Much of Medway's new housing is planned on previously developed land. The plan moves Chatham Docks towards residential-led development, with around 2,200 homes, and proposes around 690 homes in the Frindsbury Peninsula opportunity area, the former Medway City Estate, with a planning framework due by 2030/31 that covers a riverside strategy and flood defences.

For owners of smaller urban sites, the key point is policy S4 of the National Planning Policy Framework. Inside a settlement it points firmly towards approval unless the adverse effects are substantial. That applies to a builders' yard in Gillingham, a garage block in Chatham or a large garden in Rochester, whatever stage the plan has reached.

Check the lawful use. Land with a lawful commercial or industrial use is previously developed, which helps the case. Agricultural buildings do not count.
Look at the neighbours. Overlooking, daylight and parking are the usual questions on urban plots, and a good layout answers most of them.
Investigate the ground. Former industrial and commercial land often needs a contamination survey, and any remediation is designed into the scheme.
Consider the heritage. A plot in or beside a conservation area, or near a listed building, needs a design that respects it, which shapes the scheme rather than ruling it out.

Our page on yards and other brownfield land explains what we look for in urban sites. We pay for every survey and report.

The Edges of the Towns

At 60%, the council is below the threshold that brings policy S5 into play, so a field that is physically well related to Chatham, Gillingham or Rainham, away from the Green Belt, can be supported where the roads and services can take the homes. The plan also looks outward from the towns in two main places.

Area	What the plan proposes
Capstone Valley, between Chatham, Gillingham and the M2	Around 3,938 homes across four sites: Mill Fields, Sharstead Farm, East Hill and Gibraltar Farm.
The edge of Strood	Up to 1,280 homes on three sites currently in the Green Belt, including around 350 homes north of Beaufort Road and west of Gravesend Road.

The Strood proposals rest on the Green Belt Review, which assessed four parcels north west of Strood as grey belt, making a moderate contribution to Green Belt purposes, and recommended their release. It also recommended taking three parcels in the Green Belt north west of Cuxton and Halling out of the designation. The inspectors have asked what consultation was carried out on that release before the plan was submitted. Whatever the outcome, the rest of the edge of the towns is not Green Belt, and the S5 route remains available there while the council's delivery stays below 75%. Our guide to the 2026 national planning policy changes explains the tests in full.

The Hoo Peninsula

On the Hoo Peninsula the plan proposes up to around 5,000 homes across several sites around Hoo St Werburgh, with three new community centres, primary and secondary schools, and about 157,000 square metres of employment space in the Kingsnorth expansion area.

The Infrastructure Question

In July 2023 the government and Homes England ended a £170 million Housing Infrastructure Fund programme for the peninsula, which was meant to pay for new roads and sustainable transport, junction improvements at Four Elms and Sans Pareil, better public transport, rights of way and new community parkland at Deangate. The council leader said at the time that without it the council could not fund those works ahead of the new homes. That leaves growth on the peninsula more dependent on what individual schemes can provide.

Birds and Marshes

Bird Wise North Kent, which Medway runs with Gravesham, Swale and Canterbury, protects the Thames Estuary and Marshes, Medway Estuary and Marshes and Swale Special Protection Areas. Any new home within 6km of those sites carries a per-home payment, which the council secures through a legal agreement and collects before anyone moves in. Flood risk is also checked field by field before we give a view. See our guide to flood risk and development land.

For a landowner on Hoo, the most promising land is usually close to Hoo St Werburgh and the larger villages, on the drier ground, with a road access that does not rely on works that are no longer funded.

The Local Plan Examination

The council's own announcement dates submission to Wednesday 17 December 2025, while the government's monitoring data behind the figures above gives 18 December; the most likely reading is that the plan was sent on the 17th and formally logged the next day, and nothing turns on it. The inspectors set out their initial questions in a letter of 27 March 2026, asking the council to respond by 27 April. The first hearings then ran at St John's Church in Chatham from 15 to 25 September 2026, with further sessions planned for November 2026. The council had aimed to adopt the plan by the end of 2026, but the inspectors wrote in March that adoption was unlikely to happen during 2026.

Their letter raised several matters: what consultation took place on the Strood Green Belt release, the absence of a housing trajectory showing when homes would be delivered, a gap between the plan's stated need of 31 Gypsy and Traveller pitches and 3 for Travelling Showpeople and the 56 and 8 households identified in the council's own accommodation assessment, how a plan ending in 2041 would still look fifteen years ahead from adoption, and evidence that is of significant age or appears to be in draft. None of this is unusual at this stage, but it could lead to changes to sites or timing.

What It Means for Your Land

Until adoption, the 2003 plan and national policy decide applications. If your land is allocated, the November sessions are the place to back it with evidence on delivery, the very point the inspectors pressed the council on when they asked for a housing trajectory. If it is not, it can still be raised with the inspectors, with an application running alongside where the case is strong. How to take part in an examination is covered in call for sites and local plans.

Land We Look for in Medway

Yards, depots, workshops and other previously developed land inside Chatham, Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham.
Fields on the edges of the towns, outside the Green Belt, with a safe route to a road.
Land around Hoo St Werburgh, Cliffe and High Halstow on the drier ground.
Sites within walking distance of a town centre or a station.
Larger holdings next to the proposed growth areas that could form later phases.

Land out on the marshes, or in the Green Belt north west of Strood, Cuxton and Halling, faces a higher bar, and our review will spell out how much higher for your particular field.

Questions About Land in Medway

I own a small yard inside Chatham. Is that the kind of land you look at?

Yes. Land inside the towns benefits from policy S4, and Medway is relying heavily on urban sites. Size matters less than location, access and what the site could take.

The plan is at examination. Should I wait for it to be adopted?

Not necessarily. With delivery at 60%, land outside the Green Belt that is well related to the towns can come forward through an application now, and it can be supported through the examination at the same time.

Does the loss of the Hoo infrastructure funding affect my land on the peninsula?

It can. Sites that relied on the new roads need another answer on access and capacity. Land close to Hoo St Werburgh with existing road access is less affected. We look at the highway position first.

My land is near Strood and in the Green Belt. Is it worth asking?

It depends on whether it is one of the proposed release sites, and how the inspectors deal with them. Outside those sites the question is whether the land is grey belt. Our grey belt guide explains the tests.

What happens when Medway Council is replaced in 2028?

Ministers decided in July 2026 that Medway will join Dartford and Gravesham in a new council for north Kent from April 2028. Applications will still be decided through the change, and an adopted Medway plan would normally guide decisions until the new council prepares its own.

Tell Us About Your Land in Medway

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Sources

We update this page when new Housing Delivery Test results or local plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.