A council has announced its housing plans for the next 15 years, including thousands of potential homes on greenbelt land.

The proposals include possible development on green belt land across the district and a whole new village of 2,500 homes.

Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) is currently re-doing its Local Plan, as in 2020 its previous one was rejected by the government’s Planning Inspectorate.

A report to be heard at the Development and Conservation Advisory Committee on October 31 lists possible sites for housing across the district - which needs more than 10,000 new homes under government targets.

SDC member Cllr Nick Varley (Lib Dem), represents Kippington ward, where a site off Brittains Lane is earmarked for 300 homes.

“It’s much loved, well-used greenbelt land that the local community has cherished for donkeys’ years and they look like they’re going to try to put 300 houses on it,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

“The reason that you have this housing crisis in Sevenoaks is because you’ve had 20 years of failure by the Tories to build sufficient houses or to identify sufficient land to identify the local need.

“So this has probably been stored up by previous administrations for donkeys’ years, so the result now is you have this mad rush to catch up.”

A council report details that the previous plan was rejected for not meeting housing targets.

The authority was unsuccessful in its judicial review of the Inspector’s refusal, and since 2020 has been “in presumption” for not having an accepted Local Plan.

Being “in presumption” means that the council has to look more favourably upon developments that could otherwise be rejected for violating their Local Plan.

Using the government formula for calculating housing targets, the district needs to have 712 new houses built per year from 2025 – 2040, a total of 10,680 new homes.

“We know that utilising existing built-up areas alone will not meet the district’s housing need...”

Cllr Varley also slated Cllr Julia Thornton (Con), who after she became council leader in May said she was focused on “protecting the greenbelt from inappropriate development.”

Sevenoaks District is 93% designated greenbelt land, where stricter planning rules apply making it harder to build.

Some of the locations planned to meet the housing need are already subject to development such as Sevenoaks Quarry, where 950 homes were approved in June.

The biggest single site mentioned in the plan is at Pedham Place – currently hosting a golf course and land used for boot sales, the plan says the site “has the potential scale to accommodate a sustainable settlement” of 2,500 new homes.

The site on the outskirts of Swanley is also set to accommodate a new stadium of over 20,000 seats for rugby giants Wasps, as well as a hotel and training facility.

Local plans govern the location of developments throughout a district over a long period of time – developers still need to come forward individually to get planning permission and build the homes.

Not all of the sites mentioned in the report will end up being in the final version of the local plan, which will be informed by residents’ responses to the consultation.

The possible sites include green belt locations in and around the district’s towns and villages.

Greenbelt land in Dunton Green could host more than 200 homes, and almost 900 are planned for countryside around Edenbridge.

An SDC spokesman said: “Plan 2040 will help to deliver much-needed new homes, including affordable homes, while promoting health and wellbeing and protecting the environment and the overwhelming majority of the greenbelt.

“Plan 2040 proposes to make the best use of land within existing built-up areas.

“However, we know that utilising existing built-up areas alone will not meet the district’s housing need.

“To meet the district’s housing needs, we will soon ask our communities for their views on potential development sites. In broad terms, these sites are in the most suitable and sustainable locations, close to existing settlements with transport and services.

“Some of the sites would be on poorly performing greenbelt land, including land that may already have been built on.”

“The consultation will open on Thursday, November 23, closing on January 11, 2024 – subject to cabinet approval on November 9.

“Our communities’ comments will guide which sites are included in the final version of Plan 2040.”