Government Orders Tonbridge & Malling to Resume Local Plan It Voted to Pause

The Government has ordered Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council to press ahead with the next stage of its draft Local Plan - just a day after the council's own members voted to stop it.

On 3 September, as this site reported, Full Council was expected to approve the plan for its Regulation 19 consultation and instead refused, with councillors saying they would not pursue it "until there was a guarantee of water supply to every property the Government wishes to see built". Officers were told to work out what the decision meant for the timetable and to notify the Government.

The Government's response came the following day. In a statement on 4 September, the council said ministers had "reviewed the implications" of the vote and issued a direction instructing it to move forward. The council said it "will now proceed with the Regulation 19 consultation in accordance with the Government's direction", with the consultation expected to open on 11 September 2026 and details of how to take part to follow.

Council leader Cllr Matt Boughton was sharply critical. He said the intervention "flies in the face of the devolution agenda, aimed at empowering communities", and that ministers should not "overrule democratically elected Councillors and insist we proceed with the Local Plan on these numbers" when there was "no guarantee of water supply".

The result is that the council will now run a consultation on a plan its own members tried to halt. Boughton said the authority would keep working with the Government and South East Water, but would "encourage every resident to tell the Government" that the borough should not "build more homes than our water infrastructure is capable of delivering, now and in the future" - in effect inviting objections through the very consultation it has been ordered to hold.

It is the second time in a matter of weeks that central government has stepped over the council on a major planning question, after it recovered the decision on up to 1,300 homes at East Malling in August. Regulation 19 is the stage at which residents, businesses and other bodies can comment on the proposed submission version of the plan - the test being whether it is legally compliant and "sound" - before it goes to a government-appointed inspector for examination. The plan is intended to shape development across the borough to 2042, and, whatever residents now submit, it is moving forward. Source: Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council