Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council has closed its public consultation on a draft Local Plan that would set out where nearly 20,000 new homes are built across the borough over the coming decades.

Anyone who wanted a say on where new housing, roads, schools and health centres might be built across Tonbridge & Malling had until midnight on 2 January 2026 to have their say. The council has now closed that consultation — known as a Regulation 18 consultation, meaning the formal stage at which the public comments on a draft before it is finalised — and is working through the responses before producing a version that will go to a further round of public scrutiny.

The scale of what’s being planned is considerable. The Local Plan is designed to meet a government-set requirement of 19,746 new homes across the borough — about 1,097 homes a year. That figure isn’t something the council can simply choose to ignore; unless supported by strong evidence and accepted through the inspection process, the housing target is effectively fixed by national policy.

Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council posted on social media to thank residents who took part, saying their feedback “helps shape the future plans for new homes and infrastructure.” The council says a Local Plan is better than the alternative — without one, planning applications tend to be decided case by case, with less control over how development fits together with roads, schools and green space.

But the concerns are real. Residents and local groups have raised worries about what nearly 20,000 homes could mean for already-busy roads, GP surgeries, school places, flood risk and the borough’s countryside. A previous draft consultation drew more than 4,000 responses — a sign of how closely people are watching the process. The council has not yet published a verified breakdown of responses by ward, parish or individual site, so it isn’t yet clear which areas face the most pressure.

Once the council has analysed responses and completed any further technical work, it will publish a final draft for a second formal consultation — Regulation 19 — which is a publication stage at which residents and organisations may make representations. Those representations then feed into a further Regulation 20 consultation period, which is the stage at which representations are formally made before the plan is submitted to government under Regulation 22, and subsequently into an independent examination carried out by a planning inspector appointed through the Planning Inspectorate. The inspector’s job is to decide whether the plan is legally sound, properly justified and consistent with national planning policy. They can require changes — called main modifications — before the plan can be formally adopted.

According to the council’s published timetable, the Regulation 19 consultation is expected in the second quarter of 2026/27, with the independent examination subject to Planning Inspectorate scheduling — though both dates depend on the Planning Inspectorate’s own scheduling.

Key information

  • The Regulation 18 consultation closed at midnight on 2 January 2026 — this stage is now closed
  • A further Regulation 19 consultation is expected in the second quarter of 2026/27; this is a formal publication stage, after which a Regulation 20 consultation period follows — it is at the Regulation 20 stage that representations are made before the plan is submitted to government
  • Residents should monitor Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council’s website for the Regulation 19 publication date and submit any representations within the stated deadline — representations made at this stage are considered by the independent inspector
  • The independent examination timing is subject to Planning Inspectorate scheduling and no confirmed examination quarter has been published