Satellite outline view of proposed development site. B Yond Homes Ltd/ Tandridge District Council documents
By Emily Dalton
local democracy reporter
It what might be a wake up decision to other Surrey planning authorities, plans for up to 270 homes can now go ahead after an appeal where the inspector found a 15-hectare greenfield, greenbelt site is actually “grey belt”.
This means the land is deemed poor quality and does not contribute to preventing “urban sprawl” or conserving the countryside.
The inspector also concluded that the nearby settlement of Smallfield was a village, and not, as the local authority claimed, a “large built up area” or town.
Tandridge District councillors threw out the Chapel Road scheme at a planning committee in May 2024 arguing it would be an inappropriate development in the green belt around Smallfield.
The council’s case was that the land contributed strongly to stopping the “unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas” like towns and cities.
But the planning inspector David Prentis disagreed with the council’s conclusion that the proposal would have a “major adverse effect on the landscape character of the site itself”, saying the visual impact would only be “localised” because of the site’s “visual containment”.
He judged the adverse effects on the green belt and countryside would not outweigh the significant housing benefits provided by the scheme.
Approximate 49 per cent of the homes (132) would be affordable, according to the appeal report- split into 75 per cent affordable rent/social rent and 25 per cent shared ownership.
Only an outline application full details of the scale, mass and sort of homes are yet to be revealed. Illustrative proposals suggest the high density apartment buildings will be at the centre of the site with different size houses expanding outwards.
Illustrative view of proposed development site. B Yond Homes Ltd/ Tandridge District Council documents
The developers also agreed to make land available for the relocation of Burstow Primary School, create green spaces, provide off-site highway works and flood relief works, the report said.
Changes to national planning rules in December 2024 also impacted the case. The concept of “grey belt” was introduced as poor quality or ugly areas where development is less restricted.
Planning inspector Prentis concluded the land could be considered grey belt, as developing it would not undermine the area’s remaining green belt and would help to improve the district’s housing land supply of only 1.9 years.
In the 2023 published housing delivery test, Tandridge Council was found to be providing only 42 per cent of the housing requirement.
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Mark Stamp
June 27, 2025 at 10:18 pm
There was some research this week that said 30 per cent of UK homes had two or more spare bedrooms. If there were incentives for people to downsize and blocks placed on investors leaving properties empty, we wouldn’t need to build so many houses.
Daniel Andrew
June 30, 2025 at 1:38 pm
To add to Mark Stamp’s comment, there is now plenty of unused and / or redundant to office space in the country that needs to be repurposed for residential needs.