Maidstone's housing target is heading for 1,400 homes a year. The new Local Plan, the 5,000-home Heathlands scheme, Lidsing and the latest decisions.

The biggest planning story in Maidstone is not any single estate. It is the number the borough has to build to. The Local Plan adopted in March 2024 commits Maidstone to 1,157 new homes every year, one of the largest targets in Kent, and the Government’s current formula pushes the next plan towards 1,400 a year. Add two allocated garden communities totalling 7,000 homes, and a council that currently cannot show a five-year supply of housing land, and you have the forces shaping almost every application decided in the borough. This page tracks the plan, the big schemes and the decisions that matter, each linked to its source.

The plan Maidstone is building to now

Maidstone’s current rulebook is the Local Plan Review, adopted on 20 March 2024, covering 2021 to 2038. It plans for a minimum of 19,669 new homes over the period, which is 1,157 homes a year (Maidstone Borough Council, adopted Local Plan Review). That was already a big step up: the Planning Inspectors who examined the plan noted the requirement rose 31 per cent from the 883 homes a year in the 2017 plan (Report on the Examination of the Maidstone Borough Local Plan).

Bar chart of Maidstone's annual housing target over three plans: 883 homes a year in the 2017 Local Plan, 1,157 in the Local Plan Review adopted 2024, and about 1,400 a year under the Government's standard method for the new plan
Maidstone's housing target has climbed with every plan. The 1,400 figure is the Government's standard-method number the new Local Plan must work to; the adopted requirement remains 1,157 a year until that plan is in place. Chart by Maidstone Live, from the adopted Local Plan Review, the Inspectors' report and KentOnline.

And the next rise is already in motion. The council has begun work on a new Local Plan running to 2039, and applying the Government’s current standard method produces a target of about 1,400 homes a year, a 20 per cent uplift on today’s figure. As part of that work the council ran a call for sites over the summer, with landowners invited to put forward land by 23 August, and the plan will carry on even though local government reorganisation is set to abolish the borough council before it is finished (KentOnline, June 2026).

Why applications are hard to refuse right now

There is a second pressure working underneath the headline target. In 2025 the council confirmed that, after the Government added a 5 per cent buffer to the calculation, Maidstone can no longer demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. That triggers what planners call the tilted balance: the starting position becomes that a housing application should be approved unless there are very substantial reasons to refuse it. One councillor put it bluntly at the time: “Developers will now rule the roost” (KentOnline, July 2025). The council restated the shortfall in a response to Downswood Parish Council in October 2025 (Downswood Parish Council).

What it means for you: objections to a housing scheme carry less weight while the shortfall lasts, because refusals that rely on general policy are vulnerable at appeal. The decisions section below shows exactly how that plays out in the committee room.

The two garden communities: 7,000 homes

The adopted plan’s headline allocations are two new settlements on the borough’s edges.

Heathlands, Lenham Heath: 5,000 homes

Heathlands Garden Community, planned jointly by the council and Homes England, would build 5,000 homes in four phases on land at Lenham Heath, starting with 1,771 homes and a primary school and finishing with a final tranche of 850. The scheme includes at least 14 hectares of employment land, a district centre, two local centres, a six-form-entry secondary school, a country park and a new railway station. An environmental impact assessment scoping report has been submitted, but the outline planning application had still not been lodged as of June 2026. One live controversy: the examining Inspector required the railway station in phase one, and current documents move it to phase two. The council leader has acknowledged there is no legal route to stop the development, since it is allocated in the adopted plan; the argument now is about getting it right (KentOnline, June 2026).

Lidsing: 2,000 homes on the Medway boundary

Lidsing Garden Community would put 2,000 homes on the borough’s northern edge near Bredhurst, hard against the Medway Council boundary. In February 2026 the council’s cabinet unanimously adopted the Lidsing Supplementary Planning Document, after a consultation that produced more than 70 revisions. The planning application itself is still awaited, and the key local worry is the proposed M2 spur road: without it, councillors warned, Bredhurst and Boxley would be very vulnerable to increased traffic (KentOnline, February 2026).

Unlike much of Kent, this is not a Green Belt fight: only 1.3 per cent of Maidstone borough is Green Belt, the least of any Kent district that has any (KentOnline). The pressure here lands on ordinary countryside and villages instead.

Recent decisions worth knowing

Bunyards Farm, Allington: 435 homes approved, May 2026. The planning committee first voted down a motion to grant the Barratt David Wilson scheme, five votes to seven. Unable to agree policy grounds that would survive an appeal, the committee then reversed itself and approved it by 11 votes to none, with officers given delegated powers to negotiate over drawings to preserve more of an existing hedge (KentOnline, May 2026). It is the tilted balance made visible: the committee’s first instinct was no, and the policy position made that unsustainable.

31 Hayle Road: 10-bed HMO refused, May 2026. Refusals still happen where policy is clear. A bid to enlarge a six-bed house in multiple occupation to ten beds was rejected because neighbours would be sandwiched between two HMOs, against the council’s HMO planning document, and for the harm to the area’s character (KentOnline, May 2026).

HMOs are the next policy fight. Residents around Rawdon Road and Campbell Road are pressing for an Article 4 Direction to bring HMO conversions under planning control. The council’s deputy leader has said an Article 4 takes around two years and only requires an application to be made; instead officers are exploring tighter licensing policy and a tougher HMO planning document, with a review promised in September (KentOnline, July 2026).

How to follow Maidstone planning yourself

Every application, big or small, appears on the Mid Kent Public Access portal at pa.midkent.gov.uk, the shared Maidstone and Swale system, where you can search by address, track applications and submit comments within the consultation window. Our guide to Maidstone planning applications explains how to search the portal, comment on a neighbour’s scheme and read a decision notice. For what development pressure is doing to prices, see Maidstone house prices.

We will update this page as the Heathlands outline application, the Lidsing application and the new Local Plan consultations land.

Sources

Statuses checked August 2026 against the sources above; scheme timetables change, so confirm the latest position on the portal before relying on it.