Kent council area

Selling Land in Tunbridge Wells

Tunbridge Wells adopted a new Local Plan in December 2025, reported more than five years of housing land and delivered 93% of the homes it needed. With most of the borough in the High Weald and a review of that plan already under way, the strongest route for most land here runs through the review, and the ground for it is being prepared now.

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The Borough in Brief

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council covers Royal Tunbridge Wells and Southborough, which together form the main urban area, the service centres of Paddock Wood, Cranbrook and Hawkhurst, and smaller settlements including Pembury and Capel. The adopted plan draws limits to built development around its settlements and applies countryside policies beyond them.

Seven tenths High Weald. The adopted plan records about 70% of the borough as High Weald National Landscape.
Green Belt in the west. Around 22% of the borough, in its western part, is Metropolitan Green Belt. Taken together with the National Landscape, 75% of the borough is covered by one or both.
A plan to 2038. The Local Plan 2020 to 2038 sets a minimum of 12,204 homes, or 678 a year.
Paddock Wood at the centre of growth. The plan provides for a major expansion of Paddock Wood, including land at east Capel, on garden settlement principles.

The council has an up to date plan and enough land for now, but little of its countryside is free of a national designation, and that shapes almost every site we look at here.

Tunbridge Wells in Figures

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

Housing Delivery Test 2025
93%
Below 95%: the council must publish an action plan to improve delivery.
Homes built against homes needed
1,863
of 1,999 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
December 2025
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
No recent stage listed
Check the council's website for its timetable.

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.

How the New Plan Came Together

The examination was a long one. Hearings began in March 2022, and in November 2022 the inspector issued initial findings raising concerns about the two largest proposals, Tudeley Village and the growth planned at Paddock Wood. The council reworked its strategy, consulted on the proposed changes between 17 March and 30 April 2025, and received the inspector's final report on 14 October 2025, which found the plan sound with those changes. Full Council adopted it in December 2025.

Tudeley Removed, Paddock Wood Kept

Tudeley Village was deleted. The adopted plan says plainly that, as a result, it does not provide for the full housing needs of the borough up to 2038. Instead it allocates enough land for about ten years from adoption and commits the council to an early review that looks for ways to meet the rest.

Paddock Wood remains the main growth location, and the plan describes its expansion as transformational. It also names the areas to the north and west of the town as particularly prone to flooding, which is why the strategy there is tied to flood risk solutions. The plan takes some land out of the Green Belt as well, notably at east Capel next to Paddock Wood and around Royal Tunbridge Wells and Pembury, where the council found exceptional circumstances.

For landowners, that unmet need is the most important fact about the borough: it is the gap the review must fill, so sites not needed in this plan may be looked at again.

Supply, Delivery and the 93% Result

The council's Housing Land Supply Statement, with a base date of 1 April 2025 and published in December 2025, reports 5.60 years of deliverable land. It measures supply against the new plan's 678 homes a year and adds a 5% buffer. The same statement records 616 homes completed in 2024/25.

Two Delivery Results, Both Above 85%

The statement justifies its 5% buffer by quoting a Housing Delivery Test result of 102%, confirmed to the council in a government letter dated 30 April 2025. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published since, gives the borough 93%. The two are not in conflict: they come from different editions of the test, covering different three-year periods, and the newer one now applies. What matters is what changes. Both results sit above 85%, so the 5% buffer the statement uses is still the right one. The newer result is below 95%, though, so the council now has to publish an action plan explaining why delivery fell short and how it will improve.

With a result above 75% and supply above five years on its latest statement, the council is not treated as having unmet need under policy S5 of the August 2026 framework. A proposal on the edge of a village would need other convincing evidence of a particular need, which is a much harder case to make. Inside the limits to built development, policy S4 applies whatever the numbers say, so plots and yards within the towns and villages start from a presumption in favour of approval.

Which Route Suits Your Land

Because the council has both a recent plan and a land supply, the right route depends heavily on where a site sits. This is how we usually think about it:

A general guide only. Each site turns on its own evidence, which we prepare and pay for.
Where the land is	Most likely route	What decides it
Inside the limits to built development of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Southborough or a village	An application under policy S4	Design, neighbours, access and, in the villages, the High Weald
On the edge of Paddock Wood or another settlement outside the Green Belt	The Local Plan Review	How the site compares with other options, and flood risk around Paddock Wood
In the Green Belt in the west of the borough	The review, or grey belt where the tests are met	Grey belt homes also rely on evidenced unmet need, which the council does not currently have
Previously developed land, such as a yard or former commercial site	An application, often without waiting	National routes for reusing developed land, and the setting of the High Weald
Larger farmland holdings	The Local Plan Review	Scale, access to services, and the effect on the National Landscape

On the Green Belt row, grey belt policy still stands, but for new homes it needs the same kind of evidenced need as policy S5, so in the west of the borough land is more likely to come forward through the review. Our grey belt guide sets out each test in turn.

Working With the High Weald

The High Weald takes in around seven tenths of the borough, including the towns of Cranbrook and Hawkhurst. The adopted plan limits development inside it to what can be accommodated while conserving its key characteristics, which it describes as mostly small scale, with larger proposals supported only in exceptional circumstances.

That policy already shaped the plan itself. The council reduced the growth proposed at Cranbrook and Hawkhurst compared with earlier drafts, precisely because both towns sit in the National Landscape. The plan also records congestion, capacity or safety problems on the A26, A264 and A228, and on the A229 in the centre of Hawkhurst, so access and junction capacity are tested closely on sites in those corridors.

What Tends to Work Inside the National Landscape

Small sites that read as part of an existing village rather than an extension into open fields.
Land enclosed by existing buildings, hedgerows or woodland, where views from the wider landscape are limited.
Former farmyards and other previously developed land, where new homes can replace existing buildings.
Sites with a safe access that does not depend on widening a historic lane.
Schemes designed around the local pattern of fields, woodland and building materials.

On a big holding, the case is usually made through the plan, with the landscape evidence prepared well before the council chooses its sites. Our page on farmland explains how we look at larger holdings.

The Next Twelve Months in Tunbridge Wells

The Local Plan Review 2029

The adopted plan committed the council to start a review within six months of adoption. It is being prepared under the new plan-making regulations that took effect in March 2026, and it covers 2029 to 2044. A call for sites ran from 11 May to 3 August 2026, and a scoping consultation on what the review should contain ran from 14 July to 11 August 2026. The council's timetable, published on 26 June 2026, then shows:

30 October 2026: the first gateway self-assessment.
2 March to 15 April 2027: consultation on the proposed content of the plan and its evidence.
15 September 2027: the second gateway assessment.
30 November 2027 to 28 January 2028: consultation on the proposed Local Plan.
9 October 2028: submission to the government, with the council considering adoption on 30 April 2029.

Reorganisation

Ministers decided on 16 July 2026 that Tunbridge Wells would join Maidstone, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge and Malling in a West Kent unitary council, which Kent County Council said would take over from April 2028. On 7 September 2026 the government paused reorganisation across Kent and Medway so that it could be reviewed. The May 2027 elections go ahead for the existing councils, and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council carries on preparing the review and deciding applications. Only if the change resumes on its original dates would the later stages of the review pass to a new council.

The Next Delivery Test and Supply Statement

Each year brings a fresh Housing Delivery Test. The current one, the Housing Delivery Test 2025, was released on 17 August 2026 and looks at April 2022 to March 2025. If a future result fell below 85%, the buffer on the council's supply would rise from 5% to 20%, increasing the number of homes it must show by about a seventh, and its supply would have to be recalculated on that basis. Under 75%, the council would be treated as having unmet need, opening policy S5 to land beyond settlement edges. A result of 95% or more would end the need for an action plan. The latest supply statement does not say when the next one is due. The 616 completions it records for 2024/25, set against 678 a year in the plan, are worth watching as the next test takes in newer years.

What This Means for Timing

For most land outside the settlements, the spring 2027 consultation on the plan's content and evidence is the next real opportunity to shape the review, and a site is far better placed then if its access, flood, ecology and landscape work is already done. Land inside a settlement, or previously developed land, need not wait. Our guide to call for sites and local plans walks through each stage of a plan.

Questions About Land in Tunbridge Wells

My land is in the High Weald. Is it worth asking?

Yes, as long as expectations fit the landscape. The plan still allows small scale development that conserves the High Weald's character, and larger schemes can be justified in exceptional circumstances. We will tell you frankly which of those your land is likely to be.

The council has more than five years of land. Can I still apply now?

Inside a town or village, yes: policy S4 applies whatever the supply. Outside the limits to built development, an application needs convincing evidence of need that the council currently does not accept it has, so most such land is better put forward through the review.

I missed the call for sites. Have I lost my chance?

No. The review has several consultation stages to come, starting with the content and evidence stage planned for spring 2027. Sites can still be put to the council, and the evidence behind them matters more than the date they were first submitted.

Could the plan's unmet need help my land?

Possibly. The adopted plan accepts that it does not meet the borough's full needs to 2038 because Tudeley was removed, and the review has to find ways to meet that need. That makes the review a genuine search for land, not just a tidying exercise.

My field is near Paddock Wood. Does flood risk rule it out?

Not automatically. The plan identifies the land to the north and west of the town as particularly prone to flooding, but many fields have drier parts where homes can go. We check the flood maps and the plan's strategy for the town before giving a view.

Tell Us About Your Land in Tunbridge Wells

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Sources

Figures on this page come from the Housing Delivery Test 2025 (published 17 August 2026) and the Planning Inspectorate's local plan monitoring to August 2026, with newer plan milestones checked on 24 September 2026. We update the page when new results or plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.

Selling Land in Tunbridge Wells

The Borough in Brief

Tunbridge Wells in Figures

How the New Plan Came Together

Tudeley Removed, Paddock Wood Kept

Supply, Delivery and the 93% Result

Two Delivery Results, Both Above 85%

Which Route Suits Your Land

Working With the High Weald

What Tends to Work Inside the National Landscape

The Next Twelve Months in Tunbridge Wells

The Local Plan Review 2029

Reorganisation

The Next Delivery Test and Supply Statement

What This Means for Timing

Questions About Land in Tunbridge Wells

My land is in the High Weald. Is it worth asking?

The council has more than five years of land. Can I still apply now?

I missed the call for sites. Have I lost my chance?

Could the plan's unmet need help my land?

My field is near Paddock Wood. Does flood risk rule it out?

Tell Us About Your Land in Tunbridge Wells

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Sources