Swale Borough Council engaged Peter Brett Associates to provide a starting point for developing a longer-term vision for how Swale might deal with choices about the type and location of housing growth.

None of the current represents an agreed political position or
policy in Swale. The views presented are those of the consultant
team only.

This study was commissioned for two reasons

1. because the planning inspector for the current adopted plan had concerns that the current plan might not be able to support sufficient homes over the plan period. And required an early plan review.
2. national government is consulting on a new method of calculating housing targets. Emerging numbers suggest that Swale needs to provide more housing permissions – equivalent to around 35% more every year, on top of the number already in the local plan. This is equivalent to 7,500 additional homes by 2037/38.

Choices for housing growth suggests scenarios which could accommodate 15,000 new houses in Swale. Faversham emerges as one of the likely options for very substantial house building.

It provides the context for the Future Faversham meeting on March 8th