Medway Local Plan (Regulation 18, 2023)

Homes England are supportive in principle of the proposed Vision, which appears to consider a wide range of matters that will be essential to ensure Medway is a successful, attractive and high-quality place for residents, businesses and visitors in the future.

As the Government’s Housing and Regeneration Agency, Homes England are supportive of the aspiration that “all sectors and ages of the community can find decent places to live.” This aligns with the objectives outlined in our Strategic Plan to create high-quality homes in well-designed places that respond to local priorities.

The Vision appears to focus employment development on “brownfield” land, such as “derelict sites at Grain and Kingsnorth”. However, Medway should also acknowledge in the Vision that “vacant brownfield land” will be utilised for delivering residential growth.

Given the scale of proposed housing growth in Medway, Homes England consider that the Vision should also reflect the fact that Medway will be delivering significant increases in housing during the Plan period, and therefore, should include a reference to the level of sustainable housing growth envisaged.

The Vision sets a framework for the area’s growth to 2040. We note that the plan period used in this Regulation 18 document is from 2022-2040 (paragraph 5.12). The National Planning Policy Framework (September 2023, paragraph 22) states that:

“Strategic policies should look ahead over a minimum 15-year period from adoption… Where larger scale development such as new settlements or significant extensions to existing villages and towns form part of the strategy for the area, policies should be set within a vision that looks further ahead (at least 30 years) to take into account the likely timescale for delivery.”

We consider that the Vision is not consistent with national policy if it only looks ahead to the year 2040. We note that the Council’s Local Development Scheme (October 2022) states that Adoption is anticipated in Autumn 2025. To allow for any slippage in the Local Plan programme, and to align with monitoring years, it is considered that 2041 should be the minimum Plan period. However, given the potential to incorporate large scale development to meet the Council’s housing needs over the Plan period, it would be more appropriate to include a vision that looks 30 years ahead to the year 2056 to be consistent with national policy.