The level of housing need required for the Medway area identifies a requirement for 1,667 homes a year in Medway, which provides a total figure of around 28,500 homes to be delivered before the end of 2040. This figure could further be increased, as it is
identified in paragraph 5.11 that Medway are currently considering a request from Gravesham Borough Council to increase capacity by 2000 homes to help meet the housing need of their district.

In March 2023 Gravesham Borough Council produced its Five Year Housing Land Supply Statement, covering the period 2022-2027. This document sets out that Gravesham only has 2.9 years of deliverable housing supply. In accordance with the Gravesham Local Development Scheme (January 2023) the new Local Plan for Gravesham is not expected until December 2024, and thus, the Borough’s Housing Land Supply (HLS) is not likely to improve in the near future. The high likelihood of Medway having to absorb some of this housing need should not be ignored in the early stages of Local Plan creation for Medway.

It is understood that Medway Council are still establishing final numbers, due to the Council raising concerns with the Government derived figures, and the basis and calculations on which final numbers are determined. However, it is made clear in paragraph 5.13 that the Council will look to find potential site allocations enough to provide for 19,000 dwelling units, the additional 7500 sites being provided through extant supply.