Setting the direction for Medway 2041

We're at an important stage of our roadmap for our new Local Plan. 

This consultation includes:

• details on proposed policies
• potential areas for development including 3 options for locating development across Medway.

You can use our consultation portal to provide feedback on our development options. These options include:

• urban focus
• dispersed growth - more development in greenfield sites in suburban and rural areas
• a blended regeneration strategy looking at urban regeneration and greenfield sites
• the wider proposals in the plan such as policies for the environment, housing and employment. 

Urban focus

This option looks to maximise development on:

• brownfield sites in urban centres and waterfront sites
• accessible areas that benefit from good transport links.

Dispersed growth

This option considers less regeneration on brownfield sites. This involves a high release of land on greenfield sites such as farmland, and land west of Medway that forms part of the green belt around London. Sites include:

• the Hoo Peninsula
• Capstone Valley
• East and North Rainham
• the Medway Valley. 

Blended urban regeneration and greenfield

This option follows a brownfield first focus with around 50% of new development being on brownfield sites. Sites include urban centres and waterfront locations. It also has a range of suburban and rural area sites close to existing towns and villages. 

We have set out our current preferred development sites and policy designations in detailed policy maps. Although site selections have not been finalised, maps are provided to help make comments on the consultation. From earlier consultations, we have been asked to give more details about areas that may be developed in the future. 

Comments raised during the consultation will be taken into account to carry out further work to finalise the proposed development sites and policies. This will happen at the next stage of the draft plan in 2025. 

Sustainable housing

Medway is growing and with the current challenging financial climate, it's important to provide more good quality homes for all. We want:

• more affordable housing for our residents
• young people to see a future in Medway by providing places to live and local jobs
• more housing choices for older people
• to ensure homes in Medway are high quality, energy efficient and respect our local heritage. 

What we need

With house prices rising by nearly 25% in the last 5 years, many of our residents struggle to find decent and affordable housing to live in. We need 1,658 homes a year and 28,000 homes by 2041 to keep up with Medway's predicted population growth. The Local Plan has an important role in providing better housing choices to residents.

Our Local Plan will provide a strategy for how we can do this sustainably and provide a range of homes for:

• first time buyers
• growing families
• downsizers
• retirement homes
• people with disabilities. 

Sustainable development

We need to plan for a large amount of development to meet our communities needs for homes, jobs and services. 

A lot of land in Medway is:

• of national and international environmental importance
• good quality farm land
• subject to flooding.

This means that difficult choices will need to be made. The plan will look at balancing development and protecting what makes Medway special. This includes areas such as:

• wildlife
• landscapes
• historic buildings.

The Local Plan is about more than finding land for new housing developments. The plan will help us to:

• grow business in Medway
• increase jobs
• grow sustainably so services and infrastructure can support residents
• protect Medway's nature and heritage
• address climate change by becoming more resilient to threats including flooding and rising temperatures
• improve local high streets and town centres. 

We recognise that some services are already under pressure and we need to look at options where new development could help support new and improved services. 

The plan will look at what services and facilities are needed to support Medway's growing population, including where they're located. Facilities and services include:

• transport
• healthcare 
• schools
• community centres.