Surrey council area
Selling Land in Reigate and Banstead
Reigate and Banstead passes the government's delivery test with a result of 102%, yet the council's own Housing Monitor 2026 finds only 4.08 years of housing land. Its 2014 target of 460 homes a year runs out in mid-2027, and work has just begun on a new plan to 2044 that East Surrey Council will finish.
- We pay for the planning, at our own cost and risk
- Your price is agreed up front, in writing
- If planning is refused, you keep your land and owe nothing
Four Towns Between the North Downs and Gatwick
The borough takes in Reigate, Redhill, Horley and Banstead, with Merstham, Kingswood, Walton-on-the-Hill, Salfords, Nork and Tattenham Corner among its smaller places. The North Downs fill roughly its northern third, with part of that high ground inside the Surrey Hills, and the Greensand Ridge runs parallel to the south. The M25 crosses it, with junctions for the M23 and at Reigate Hill, the London to Brighton line and the North Downs Line serve its towns, and Gatwick Airport sits against Horley in the south east.
- About 70% Green Belt. The council's 2024 review of its Development Management Plan records roughly seven tenths of the borough as Green Belt.
- Open countryside that is not Green Belt. Around Horley, the Rural Surrounds of Horley are countryside beyond the Green Belt under policy NHE7, a status the 2019 plan inspector declined to change.
- A plan in two parts. The Core Strategy, adopted in July 2014 and reviewed in 2019 and 2024, sets the housing target; the Development Management Plan of September 2019 holds the detailed policies and site allocations.
- Delivery on target, building slowing. The council built 1,411 homes against a requirement of 1,384 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025. Its own monitor shows completions falling from 722 in 2021/22 to 215 in 2024/25 and 225 in 2025/26.
That last pair of figures explains what follows: a borough comfortable on the three-year test has, on its own count, dropped below five years of housing land.
Reigate and Banstead in Figures
The government's latest figures for the council, and where its local plan stands.
Housing Delivery Test 2025
102%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Homes built against homes needed
1,411
of 1,384 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
July 2014
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
New Local Plan to 2044: scoping consultation open until 26 October 2026
Checked source
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.
4.08 Years of Supply, Against a Target of 460
The Housing Monitor 2026 measures supply at 1 April 2026 against the Core Strategy figure of at least 6,900 homes between 2012 and 2027, or 460 a year. It keeps that figure although the Core Strategy is more than five years old, because the council formally reviewed the strategy in July 2019 and again in March 2024 and found it did not need updating. The calculation runs as follows:
| Step in the calculation | Council's figure |
|---|---|
| Yearly requirement | 460 homes, from the Core Strategy |
| Buffer | 20%, or 92 a year, because 460 is less than 80% of the government's standard method figure of 1,281 a year |
| Credit for past building | 791 homes built above target since 2012, taken off at 158 a year |
| Yearly figure to meet | 394 homes |
| Deliverable supply | 1,607 homes: 1,232 on sites with permission and 375 from small windfall sites |
| Result | 4.08 years |
Five years at 394 comes to around 1,970 homes, so the council is roughly 360 homes short on its own method. The buffer has nothing to do with the delivery test, which the borough passes. The monitor applies it under the national rule that, from 1 July 2026, adds 20% where a requirement reviewed and found not to need updating sits below 80% of the standard method. The credit for past oversupply is the council's own judgement, and it does a lot of work in the result.
How the Figure Fell
The June 2025 monitor found 5.6 years at 1 April 2025 but forecast 4.51 a year later, as the council's Oakley Farm committee report of November 2025 records, and the reserve of urban extension sites was declared "now released for development" under policy MLS1. Scrutiny minutes a month later give it as 4.6; the outcome, 4.08, was lower still.
What a Shortfall Does for a Field Here
Under policy S5 of the August 2026 framework, a supply short of five years is evidence that homes are needed on land past the edge of a town or village. It is not an automatic approval: the land must be well related to the settlement beside it, and roads, schools and drainage must be able to cope. S5 does not reach Green Belt land, which in this borough means most of the countryside. Green Belt land has its own test instead. Homes on grey belt are only acceptable where need is shown, and a supply short of five years is one of the usual ways of showing it, so grey belt cases for housing are open here in a way they are not where a council has a full supply. Our guide to grey belt land sets out that test and the Golden Rules that follow it.
The Urban Extensions, Now Released
The 2019 Development Management Plan named a dozen sustainable urban extensions. The inspector's report records nine in the Green Belt, which the plan released, and three in the Rural Surrounds of Horley. She also asked for a release mechanism run through the yearly Housing Monitor, so that the sites would come forward whenever the five-year supply needed them. That moment arrived in 2025.
| Area | Allocated urban extensions |
|---|---|
| Redhill and Merstham | Land at Hillsbrow (ERM1); Copyhold Works and land to its west (ERM2 and ERM3); 164 Bletchingley Road and land south of Bletchingley Road (ERM4); Oakley Farm (ERM5) |
| Reigate | Sandcross Lane (SSW2); land west of Castle Drive (SSW6); Hartswood Nursery (SSW7); Dovers Farm (SSW9) |
| Horley | Meath Green Lane (NWH1); Bonehurst Road (NWH2); land off The Close and Haroldslea Drive (SEH4) |
Two show what the sites carry. At Oakley Farm, Merstham, the committee was recommended in November 2025 to approve up to 107 homes, commercial space and a traveller pitch, with 35% of the homes affordable and further obligations for roads, open space and biodiversity. At Sandcross Lane, Reigate, outline permission for up to 300 homes, including 65 extra care homes for older people, followed in March 2026.
The reserve is now in use, and the supply has still dropped. Land beyond these allocations will be tested through applications on the S5 and grey belt routes, or through the Green Belt review the council says is progressing for its new plan. Our guide to section 106 and CIL shows what such obligations take out of a scheme.
Horley, Its Rural Surrounds and the Runway
Horley did more of the borough's recent building than any other area, with 34% of completions in 2025/26 against 12.1% in Reigate, and much of its greenfield growth came from the Horley North West Sector. Its countryside is also the least protected. Asked at the 2019 examination whether the Rural Surrounds of Horley should become Green Belt, the inspector concluded that "exceptional circumstances do not exist and there is insufficient justification" for it. The land stayed as countryside beyond the Green Belt, and it is where policy S5 has real reach while the supply stays under five years.
Gatwick's Northern Runway
Gatwick won development consent from the Transport Secretary in September 2025 to bring its northern runway into routine use alongside the main one, with the airport able to handle up to 80 million passengers a year. Around Horley, the airport and the strategic business park the plan allocates west of Balcombe Road (HOR9) bring jobs, while aircraft noise shapes where homes can go on a site and how they are built.
The Land We Look for in Reigate and Banstead
- Fields and paddocks in the Rural Surrounds of Horley that sit against the edge of the town.
- Green Belt land around Redhill, Reigate, Merstham or Banstead that is enclosed by housing, roads or the railway and may count as grey belt.
- Yards, nurseries, depots and other previously developed land, inside or outside the Green Belt.
- Large gardens and backland plots inside the built-up areas, where policy S4 favours approval.
- Land within an easy walk of a station with a frequent service.
- Larger holdings that could help meet the much higher target the new plan must find room for.
Land up on the North Downs, where parts of the borough fall within the Surrey Hills, is the hardest case, and we will say so. Wherever your land sits, the planning work is ours to fund: access, drainage, ecology, landscape and Green Belt evidence. We fix the price in an option before any of that starts, above the land's value today. You keep using the land, and without permission it stays yours with nothing owed. Small parcels are welcome too, as our page on paddocks and small sites explains.
Reigate and Banstead After 2027: A New Target and a New Council
The 460 Target Expires
The Core Strategy's plan period ends in 2027. The council's scrutiny committee was told in December 2025 that after mid-2027 the borough would be without an up-to-date plan and the housing requirement would default to the standard method, then anticipated at around 1,285 to 1,306 homes a year. The Housing Monitor 2026 uses 1,281, the latest figure; the method is rerun as new house price and earnings data appear, so it shifts slightly each year. We make no forecast, but against a yardstick close to three times today's 460, the same 1,607 homes of supply would cover far fewer years.
The New Plan to 2044
The council announced its new Local Plan in July 2026 and opened a six-week scoping consultation on 14 September, closing at 5pm on 26 October 2026. It names much higher housing need, Green Belt change and reorganisation among its reasons, expects adoption by mid-2029, and leaves sites and numbers to later stages. Its call for sites has been open since 2019 and accepts land at any time, though late entries may miss the first round of its land availability assessment, which in December 2025 was already mapping 460 sites. Our call for sites guide follows a site from assessment to allocation.
East Surrey Takes Over
Responsibility for plan-making moves to the new East Surrey Council on 1 April 2027. The council says the government is encouraging outgoing councils to press on meanwhile, and its December 2025 report accepted that no new plan could be submitted for examination before the handover.
The Next Delivery Test and the Surrey Hills
The Housing Delivery Test 2025 appeared on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 102%, none of the test's consequences applies. Falling below 95% would mean an action plan, and below 75% unmet need would be taken as shown under S5; the 20% buffer already applies here for the reason above. The low completions of 2024/25 already count in the current result, and the next edition should cover both that year and 2025/26. Separately, Natural England submitted a proposal to extend the Surrey Hills National Landscape by 129 square kilometres to the government on 10 September 2026. Proposed extension land has no new status until a decision, and we check the proposed boundary for any site near the Downs.
What It Means for Timing
- Land in the Rural Surrounds of Horley can be looked at now, while the supply is below five years.
- Possible grey belt and previously developed land can also be assessed now.
- Open Green Belt fields belong in the new plan, and evidence ready before sites are chosen does most good.
Questions About Land in Reigate and Banstead
The council passes the delivery test. How can it be short of housing land?
The two measure different things. The test looks back at three years of building against need, while the land supply looks forward five years against the Core Strategy target plus a 20% buffer, less a credit for past oversupply. The latest monitor, which follows completions of 215 and 225 in the last two years, puts the forward figure at 4.08 years.
My land near Horley is not in the Green Belt. Does that help?
It can. The Rural Surrounds of Horley are countryside beyond the Green Belt, so policy S5 applies there while the supply is below five years. The land still has to sit well against the town, with safe access and drainage, and aircraft noise has to be designed around.
Is it too late to put my land forward to the council?
No. Its call for sites accepts land at any time. A site needs room for at least five homes to be assessed for housing, and each submission needs a map and a copy of the title deeds. The new plan will then test each site on evidence, which is the part we prepare and pay for.
Will East Surrey Council honour the current plan?
The Core Strategy and Development Management Plan remain the adopted plan until the new one replaces it, and applications carry on being decided. The council does expect the housing target to default to the standard method once the plan period ends in mid-2027.
Tell Us About Your Land in Reigate and Banstead
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More in Surrey
County overview
Selling Land in Surrey
Selling land in Surrey? Most councils are behind on new homes and grey belt is being tested. We agree your price up front and pay for all the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 102%
Selling Land in Guildford
Own land in Guildford? The council has 2.98 years of housing land, as its need has roughly doubled since 2019. We agree your price and pay for all the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 98%
Selling Land in Surrey Heath
Own land in Surrey Heath? Its land supply is 7.17 years on the old housing figure but 3.12 on the new one. We agree your price and pay for all the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 117%
Selling Land in Waverley
Own land in Waverley? Its latest statement finds 1.28 years of housing land against a need of 1,481 a year. We agree your price and pay for all the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 97%
Selling Land in Woking
Own land in Woking? The whole borough lies within 5km of protected heath, and a new plan to 2044 has begun. We agree your price and pay for all the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 59%
Selling Land in Elmbridge
Own land in Elmbridge? Its last plan was found unsound and a new one is due in 2028. See what grey belt means for you. We pay for all the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 33%
Selling Land in Epsom and Ewell
Own land in Epsom and Ewell? The council built only 33% of the homes it needed. We agree your price for the land up front and pay for all the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 72%
Selling Land in Mole Valley
Own land in Mole Valley? A 2024 plan with an early review, the Surrey Hills and Green Belt explained. We agree a price and pay for all the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 33%
Selling Land in Spelthorne
Own land in Spelthorne? The council built only 33% of the homes it needed and is already reviewing its plan. We agree a price and pay for the planning.
Housing Delivery Test: 38%
Selling Land in Tandridge
Own land in Tandridge? The council built only 38% of the homes it needed in a district that is 94% Green Belt. We pay for all the planning work.
Housing Delivery Test: 94%
Selling Land in Runnymede
Own land in Runnymede? The council's September 2025 statement found 2.89 years of housing land, not five. We agree your price and pay for all the planning.
Sources
- Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: Housing Monitor 2026 (base date 1 April 2026)
- Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: Work begins on new Local Plan to 2044 (July 2026)
- Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: Local Plan scoping consultation launches (September 2026)
- Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Local Plan Update, minutes and linked report (4 December 2025)
- Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: Development Management Plan (adopted September 2019)
- Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: Review of the Development Management Plan (2024)
- Planning Inspectorate: Report on the examination of the Reigate and Banstead Development Management Plan (July 2019)
- Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: Planning Committee report, Oakley Farm, Merstham, 25/00009/OUT (November 2025)
- Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: Call for Sites
- Planning Inspectorate: Gatwick Airport Northern Runway, project information
- GOV.UK: Extension proposal for Surrey Hills National Landscape submitted (September 2026)
- Wikipedia: Borough of Reigate and Banstead
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.