Surrey council area

Selling Land in Tandridge

Tandridge says it has more Green Belt than any other district in the country, and its Core Strategy dates from 2008. After a failed plan and a fresh start in 2024, the council is now weighing sites for homes at almost eight times its old annual target.

Free review of your land in Tandridge

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If planning is refused, you keep your land and owe nothing

Tandridge District at a Glance

Tandridge takes in Caterham, Whyteleafe and Warlingham, Oxted and Hurst Green, Godstone and Nutfield, and the villages of Lingfield, Dormansland, Felbridge, Smallfield and Burstow, along with Woldingham, Limpsfield and Tatsfield. The council's summer 2026 consultation held drop-in events in eight places, from Warlingham Library to the Aileen McHugo Building in Tatsfield.

The most Green Belt of any district. The council puts its Green Belt at 94% of the district, which it describes as the highest in the country.
A 38% delivery result. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 recorded 732 homes against a requirement of 1,915 over three years.
Two National Landscapes. The council names the Surrey Hills and the High Weald as the two protected landscapes in the district.
A plan started from scratch. Full Council agreed on 18 April 2024 to begin a new Local Plan for 2024 to 2044, after the withdrawal of Our Local Plan 2033.
A new council from April 2027. Tandridge will become part of East Surrey, which the council says will use the new plan for decisions in the former district if it is adopted.

That leaves a long record of under-delivery and almost no land that is not protected in some way, so sites here succeed on careful, site-specific evidence rather than on the housing numbers alone.

Tandridge in Figures

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

Housing Delivery Test 2025
38%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Homes built against homes needed
732
of 1,915 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
October 2008
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
New plan to 2044: spatial strategy consultation summer 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.

Why a 38% Score Works Differently in Tandridge

In most districts, a delivery result this far below 75% would make a large number of edge-of-village fields worth putting forward under policy S5 of the national framework, which supports homes on land well related to a settlement where housing need is unmet. That route does not apply in the Green Belt. With 94% of Tandridge in the Green Belt, the practical effect of the score is narrower, and it works through three doors:

Land inside settlements drawn out of the Green Belt. Where a town or village is inset, policy S4 says development inside it should be approved unless the harm substantially outweighs the benefits. Long back gardens, garage blocks and underused commercial plots all fall here.
Grey belt. A field that does little to check the spread of London, to keep towns apart or to protect a historic setting can be grey belt. The council's own Local Plan page points to the change in national policy that allows Green Belt to be reclassified as grey belt. Schemes must then meet the Golden Rules.
Previously developed land. Former nurseries with permanent buildings, haulage and builders' yards, and redundant commercial sites have their own routes in Green Belt policy, provided the buildings or hardstanding have a lawful use.

The Golden Rules require a higher share of affordable housing than normal, plus the infrastructure and public green space a scheme needs. On a paddock behind Lingfield or Smallfield they can take a noticeable share of the land, so layout and costings are worked out together. Our grey belt guide explains the tests in full.

The Tandridge District Local Plan 2024 to 2044

Why the Last Plan Failed

Our Local Plan 2033 would have provided about 6,000 homes, 4,000 of them in a garden village at South Godstone. As reported by Surrey Live in 2023, the inspector, Philip Lewis, wrote in May that year that the plan as submitted was unsound and that he had not been able to see how it could be made sound. His concerns included the changes the garden village would need at junction 6 of the M25 and the huge costs of those works, and he described the plan and its evidence as increasingly dated. The plan was withdrawn, and the council started again in April 2024.

The Scale of the New Plan

The council says the government's figure for the district is currently 983 homes a year, against 125 a year in the 2008 Core Strategy, and that around 2,000 homes already have planning permission. A figure of that size gives landowners across the district a real stake in the plan.

Why the Council Quotes Both 12,300 and 983 a Year

The same council page gives the district's target as around 12,300 homes over 15 years and, a line later, as 983 homes a year. Multiplied out, 983 a year over 15 years is nearer 14,700, and the page does not explain the difference. Deducting the 2,000 homes with permission does not close the gap exactly, and because the standard method is recalculated as new data are published, the two numbers may have been written at different times. For a landowner it changes little: either figure is many times what the district has been building, and the draft plan will set the number the inspector tests.

Where the Plan Has Reached

The council's announcement of its summer 2026 consultation on the spatial development strategy gave dates of 6 July to 17 August, with drop-in events from Warlingham to Burstow and South Godstone. Its Local Plan page later says paper surveys had to be back by 2 September 2026, which suggests paper responses were given longer. Its Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment, published in June 2026, includes a separate assessment for each parish, so owners can see how any site already put forward has been judged.

If your land was left out of the June 2026 assessment, or its parish assessment marks it down on access or landscape, the strategy stage is still early enough for new evidence to change that verdict. What each later stage asks of a site is set out in the call for sites and local plans guide.

Downs, Weald and Ashdown Forest

Inside the Surrey Hills and High Weald National Landscapes, major development faces the highest bar in national policy, and land just outside them is often judged on how it would look from the protected landscape. In the High Weald the concern is often small fields, hedges and historic lanes, and a well-designed scheme that keeps those features has a far better chance than one that ignores them.

The Surrey Hills boundary may be redrawn. The boundary variation order Natural England submitted on 7 September 2026 includes proposed additions named the Woldingham Valleys and Limpsfield. It has no effect until the government confirms it, but landscape evidence there will be read with it in mind.

The Ashdown Forest Zone

Part of the district lies within the 7 kilometre zone around the Ashdown Forest Special Protection Area. Dormansland's neighbourhood plan group has written the requirement into its policy DNP10: residential schemes in the zone must avoid and mitigate their impact, through a bespoke area of natural green space, a contribution to strategic access management and monitoring, or other measures agreed with the council and Natural England. That plan is not among those the council lists as made, but the requirement stands regardless. It is a cost to plan for, not a reason to rule a site out, and on a large enough holding part of the land can provide the green space itself.

Roads, Rivers and Neighbourhood Plans

Local factor	What it means for a site
M25 junction 6	The cost of changes at this junction was one of the inspector's concerns with the last plan. Traffic evidence will matter again for any larger scheme that relies on it.
Rivers and streams	Surrey County Council names the River Mole and its tributaries and the River Eden among the main watercourses, along with the Eden Brook, Gibbs Brook, Burstow Stream and Salfords Stream. Homes can usually be kept to the drier ground. See our flood risk guide.
The 2013 to 2014 floods	The county's investigation recorded flooding that winter in Lingfield, Smallfield, Oxted, Godstone, Caterham, Felbridge, Burstow, Horne, Nutfield, Outwood, Warlingham and Whyteleafe.
Wealden geology	The same report describes the upper catchments as Wealden Group rock that is typically very impermeable, so rivers respond rapidly to rain and drainage design needs close attention.
Neighbourhood plans	The council lists four as made: Caterham, Chaldon and Whyteleafe (June 2026), Tatsfield (2024), Limpsfield (2019) and Woldingham (2016). In those parishes their policies sit alongside the council's own.

The adopted development plan itself is the Core Strategy of October 2008 and the Local Plan Part 2 detailed policies adopted in July 2014. We commission the drainage and highways work early, at our cost, because on Tandridge's heavy ground and busy junctions those two reports often decide a scheme.

Land We Are Looking for in Tandridge

Paddocks and small fields on the edge of Caterham, Oxted, Warlingham, Lingfield, Smallfield and the other larger settlements, especially where homes wrap around two or more sides.
Former nurseries, yards, depots and equestrian sites with lawful buildings or hardstanding, in or outside the Green Belt.
Fields a short walk from a station with a regular train service.
Sites with a safe access onto a road, or a realistic way of securing one.
Larger holdings that could contribute to the growth the new Local Plan has to find.

Small sites count here. Many of the best Tandridge opportunities are an acre or two behind a village street rather than open farmland, as our page on paddocks and small sites explains. Where we take a site on, we pay for every report, application and any appeal, and you keep using the land until completion.

Questions Landowners Ask About Tandridge

Ninety-four per cent of the district is Green Belt. Is there any realistic chance for my field?

For the right field, yes. Grey belt, previously developed land and release through the new Local Plan are all live routes. The key is how your land sits against the purposes of the Green Belt, which we assess before anything else.

I put my land forward for the old Local Plan 2033. Does that still count?

The council started again in 2024 and has published a fresh land assessment. If your site appears in the June 2026 assessment, it is already known to the council. If it does not, it can still be put forward, and we can advise on the best moment.

Will the move to East Surrey in 2027 delay things?

Applications carry on being decided throughout, and the council expects work on the Local Plan to continue under East Surrey. A change of council does not reset the planning status of your land.

My land is near Dormansland. What does the Ashdown Forest zone mean for me?

New homes there need mitigation, typically a contribution to visitor management or, on bigger schemes, new natural green space. We build that into the scheme and the costings from day one, so it is dealt with rather than discovered late.

I own an old yard outside a village. Is that different from a field?

Often it is. Land with lawful buildings or hardstanding counts as previously developed and has its own routes under Green Belt policy. Glasshouses used for farming are the usual exception. We check the planning history as part of our free review.

Tell Us About Your Land in Tandridge

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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.