One of Surrey’s greenest areas could be forced to double its housing targets  – despite there being 6,000 unbuilt homes in the borough with planning permission.

Waverley Borough Council (WBC) will need to up its housing targets from 710 new homes to 1,374 as part of sweeping changes proposed to national planning laws.

The new Government is seeking views ahead of a raft of reforms to the planning system – including huge new housing targets and rises in planning fees.

The latter has been regarded as a much needed boost to local authorities, the former not so much.

Councils will be made to meet these new mandatory figures unless they can demonstrate ‘hard constraints’, and have exhausted all other options, including a thorough review of their Green Belt.

WBC has 20,840 hectares of green belt land according to the local authority green belt statistical release.

Councillor Liz Townsend, portfolio holder for planning on WBC told the Tuesday, August 6 executive committee the 1,374 new housing target “will be extremely challenging for us to meet.”

She said: “Just remonstrating against this will hold no weight. We will have to provide robust evidence of our constraints and robust evidence of the number of good quality new homes we are able to accommodate.

“There are 6,000 unbuilt permissions and local plan allocations that really need some government intervention to unlock, as well as the overdue, and much needed, significant investment in local infrastructure to serve existing residents as well as new ones.

“We have until September 24 to work through the 106 questions, she said, adding, “We encourage residents and business community groups… to also share their views on the proposals with the Government as well.

“It’s important they get a wide range of views on these new and very significant changes.”

The targets, if imposed, would be a huge ask for WBC.  In recent years, the borough has been delivering housing above its current target, averaging 784 new homes in each of the last three years.

Cllr Tony Fairclough, who was chairing the meeting, added: “I don’t think any of us are underestimating the task ahead of us and planning officers and it’s an incredibly important thing.”

Councils have to identify where, and the types of housing, that can be built as part of a long-term planning bible known as the local plan.

The Government is expected to announce revisions that will create a new ‘grey belt’  within the Green Belt. As well as broadening the definition of former industrial land known as brownfield sites – with a greater expectation that planning applications on brownfield be approved.

Much of Waverley’s Green Belt is rolling woodlands which contributes to its rural character, even close urban areas –  a November 2020 paper tiled Green Belt Settlement Boundary Review found.

However, it also stated that there still remained “a significant proportion of the borough” that was outside of the Green Belt, and “opportunities for development on brownfield land are likely to emerge in the future”.