Letter: Portsmouth Road and Guildford Park Road Are the Right Types of Development

Published on: 24 Nov, 2025
Updated on: 24 Nov, 2025

From: Nathan Cassidy

In response to: We Risk Losing the Best Qualities of Guildford

If M Durant cares about scarce affordable housing, congestion and protecting the countryside (all of which I also care about) then he should welcome the developments at Portsmouth Road and, as he says he does, Guildford Park Road.

These are brownfield developments which are dense (both qualities which protect green space). They are also care-lite developments – with amenities and transport links in walkable distance.

He should be against farmland being turned into car-dependent, sprawl. It is those which destroy the countryside and cause congestion from people having to drive into town to reach amenities.

If he is against both styles of development… well, there will never be any affordable homes. We cannot restrict supply and expect prices to ever reach affordable levels.

Responses to Letter: Portsmouth Road and Guildford Park Road Are the Right Types of Development

M Durant Reply

November 25, 2025 at 11:14 am

I share Nathan Cassidy’s concern for affordable housing, congestion, and protecting the countryside. Brownfield developments like Guildford Park Road do make sense in principle. In theory, that’s exactly the kind of model we should be encouraging.

Where I struggle, though, is with The Plaza development on the Portsmouth Road. The studios there are priced between £1,299 and £1,450 a month, for spaces so small that most single people I know couldn’t realistically afford them or feel comfortable living in them. That doesn’t solve the affordability crisis – it simply adds more units that are technically ‘housing’ but inaccessible to the majority.

For years, Surrey has seen both countryside developments and town-centre schemes that end up unaffordable. The real issue isn’t just supply, but the way the market is distorted: properties bought up as investments, often left empty. This dynamic pushes people further out and drives up prices everywhere, including here.

So while I agree that farmland sprawl is the wrong direction, I don’t think we can call Portsmouth Road a win either. If we want genuinely affordable homes, we need to tackle the investment-driven housing market as much as the planning system. Otherwise, we’ll keep building units that look good on paper but don’t meet the needs of ordinary residents.