Epsom and Ewell's submitted Local Plan meets 47% of housing need. The council has added 17 more sites, five in the Green Belt, and the inspector is deciding.
Epsom and Ewell’s Local Plan has been sitting with a government inspector for seventeen months, and the argument is not about which fields get built on. It is about whether the council has looked hard enough. The plan as submitted would meet 47% of the borough’s assessed housing need, and the inspector has twice sent the council away to look again.
The second of those exercises has now produced 1,130 more homes across seventeen extra sites, five of them in the Green Belt. A further hearing on those sites was held at Epsom Town Hall on 2 July 2026, and the council’s last update, on 9 July, says the inspector is considering the evidence. Nothing is adopted, nothing is refused, and everything below comes from the examination’s own documents.
The numbers the argument turns on
The Local Plan runs from 2022 to 2040 and was submitted to the Secretary of State on 10 March 2025. C Masters MA (Hons) FRTPI is the appointed inspector.
| Measure | Homes | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Standard method housing need | 10,242 | 569 |
| Plan requirement as submitted | 4,700 | 261 |
| Supply identified in the submitted plan | 4,960 | 276 |
| Supply with the 17 additional sites | 6,129 | 340 |
The council’s own submission document puts it plainly: “The housing need for Epsom and Ewell generated by the standard method with a 2024 baseline is 569 dwelling per annum”, which “equates to 10,242 dwellings over the local plan period”, while “during the plan period (2022-2040), provision has been made for at least 4,700 new homes.”
The inspector’s arithmetic was blunter. In his post-hearing letter of 22 October 2025 he wrote that “the Plan as would result in a 5500-dwelling shortfall against the standard method.”
What the inspector asked for, twice
Stage 1 of the examination, on legal compliance, was heard on 28 August 2025. Stage 2, on soundness, ran from 30 September to 9 October 2025. Two things came out of those hearings.
The discounted urban sites. The council’s Land Availability Assessment had discounted around 80 sites at stage 2 of its own methodology, partly for being “not available”. It turned out that label had also been applied where the council simply got no reply to its call-for-sites letter. As the inspector put it, “this means that 54 sites were discounted from the process solely on this basis alone”, and given “the significant extent of unmet housing need within the borough” he asked the council to go back and assess them properly, including contacting the landowners.
The Green Belt evidence. The plan’s case for releasing Green Belt rests on a Green Belt Exceptional Circumstances Topic Paper. The inspector accepted the principle, saying that in light of the unmet need “I consider this is a justified approach”. He did not accept the execution. “A number of the conclusions drawn are inconsistent with the evidence presented”, he wrote, the treatment of mitigation was “neither clear or consistent”, and “there are errors in the way individual sites have been assessed.” He could not therefore conclude “whether the Council have done enough through this exercise to address the acute housing needs of the borough.”
The council submitted both pieces of work on 22 January 2026. The re-run found 13 of the 54 urban sites were potentially developable, and the reassessed Green Belt work found 11 additional Green Belt sites satisfying the Calverton Tests, over and above the five already in the plan.
A second inspector’s letter on 5 February 2026 then asked whether those sites should actually be allocated. Council officers wrote back on 11 February asking whether that was necessary for the examination to proceed. The inspector confirmed that it was.
The seventeen sites now on the table
In April 2026 the council published its answer: twelve additional urban sites and five additional Green Belt sites, all proposed for allocation through main modifications to the plan.
| Site | Area | Indicative yield | Timescale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downs Farm, northern parcel | 27.9 ha | 530 homes | Developable within 6-10 years |
| Land at Priest Hill, Ewell | 8.63 ha | 275 homes | Part deliverable within 5 years |
| Land West of Burgh Heath Road | 1.52 ha | 50 homes | Developable within 6-10 years |
| Land off Cuddington Glade | 1.11 ha | 50 homes | Developable within 6-10 years |
| Cuddington Glade | 0.52 ha | 70-bed care home | Deliverable within 5 years |
The twelve urban sites add 188 homes between them, in ones and tens: eleven at 25 Alexandra Road, 38 on land west of Ewell By-Pass, 28 at the Conservative Club, Epsom Club and Church, 23 at Eclipse Business Park on West Hill, 22 at the Spread Eagle Shopping Centre, 17 at TK Maxx, and single-figure schemes at Gainsborough Road, Laine Theatre Arts and 85b Hook Road.
Taken together, the council calculates that “an additional 1,130 homes could be delivered within the plan period”, lifting supply “from 4,960 dwellings (average of 276 dwellings per annum) to 6,129 dwellings (average of 340 dwellings per annum)”. On the plan’s own requirement of 261 a year, that would give the council a 6.02 year housing land supply.
It would also still leave the borough more than 4,000 homes short of the standard method figure.
What is already allocated in the town
The Green Belt gets the attention, but the submitted plan’s largest single allocations are in Epsom town centre and on brownfield land, and several of them are places residents use every week.
- Southern Gas Network site, 456 homes, the biggest allocation in the plan.
- Horton Farm, 1,250 homes, the biggest of the five Green Belt releases already in the plan and the largest site of any kind.
- Land at West Park Hospital, 180 homes on the northern parcel and 50 on the southern.
- Hook Road Car Park, 145 homes. The council’s car park there has 530 spaces and has already been switched to permit and RingGo only “as an interim measure until the long-term future of the site is determined”.
- Depot Road and Upper High Street car parks, 100 homes between them.
- Hook Road Arena, 100 homes.
- Epsom Town Hall, 90 homes.
The Priest Hill site is the one to watch for anyone in east Ewell. The council’s own description has it as 8.63 hectares next to Ewell East station, roughly 78% open space and playing fields with previously developed land to the north, bounded by the railway, Cheam Road and Banstead Road. Its promoters have already run a pre-application public consultation in 2026 on an illustrative masterplan of 283 homes in a first phase and 161 in a second, on 3.7 hectares currently on a long lease to a local sports club. Surrey Wildlife Trust’s Priest Hill nature reserve sits beyond the site boundary to the south-east and is a Site of Nature Conservation Importance, not part of the allocation.
The deadline nobody is talking about
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council will not exist when this plan is a few years old. On 1 April 2027 it is abolished, along with Elmbridge, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge, and replaced by a single East Surrey Council. The shadow authority first met on 20 May 2026 under Councillor Steve Wotton as leader, with Adam Chalmers as interim chief executive.
That gives the examination a hard edge. A plan adopted before vesting day binds the new authority from the start. A plan still at examination in April 2027 lands in the lap of a council covering five former districts, with its own priorities and its own timetable. The inspector has been considering the additional Green Belt evidence since 2 July.
What it means for you
If a site near you is on the list, being allocated is not planning permission, but it is close to decisive. It means the principle of building there has been accepted in policy, which makes refusing a later application much harder. The stage to engage is now, at examination, not when the application arrives.
If you want to follow it, the council publishes the entire examination library, including every inspector’s letter, and the Programme Officer is Charlotte Glancy of Banks Solutions, who works independently of the council.
If you are buying here, check the additional sites document before you commit. The five Green Belt sites are at Downs Farm, Priest Hill, Burgh Heath Road and two parcels at Cuddington Glade, and the town-centre allocations include two of the borough’s car parks. What that market currently costs is on Epsom house prices.
Frequently asked questions
What stage is the Epsom and Ewell Local Plan at?
Examination. It was submitted on 10 March 2025, hearings were held in August, September and October 2025 and again on 2 July 2026, and the inspector is considering the additional Green Belt evidence.
How many homes does Epsom and Ewell have to build?
The standard method gives a need of 569 a year, or 10,242 over the plan period. The submitted plan sets a requirement of 261 a year, or 4,700, which is about 47% of the need figure.
Which Green Belt sites are proposed in Epsom and Ewell?
The submitted plan releases five: Horton Farm (1,250 homes), West Park Hospital north and south (180 and 50), Hook Road Arena (100) and Chantilly Way (30). The council has since proposed five more: Downs Farm (530), Priest Hill (275), Land West of Burgh Heath Road (50), Land off Cuddington Glade (50) and a 70-bed care home at Cuddington Glade.
Does Epsom and Ewell have a five year housing land supply?
The council says that if the additional sites are allocated and the requirement stays at 261 a year, it can demonstrate 6.02 years. That calculation depends on the inspector accepting both the sites and the requirement.
When does Epsom and Ewell Borough Council disappear?
1 April 2027, when East Surrey Council takes over from Epsom and Ewell, Elmbridge, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge.
Where can I comment on a specific planning application?
Through the council’s Public Access portal at eplanning.epsom-ewell.gov.uk, which carries the weekly list of validated applications and the consultation periods.
Sources
- Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, Local Plan Examination for the submission date, the inspector, the hearing dates, the Programme Officer and the 9 July 2026 update.
- Inspector’s post-hearing letter, 22 October 2025 (ID-018) for the 5,500-dwelling shortfall, the 54 discounted sites and the criticism of the Green Belt topic paper.
- Additional Sites for Potential Allocation, April 2026 (COUD_029) for the 47% figure, the 13 urban and 11 Green Belt sites, the site tables and yields, the revised trajectory, the 1,130 additional homes, the 6,129 total and the 6.02 year land supply.
- Updated guidance note from the inspector (ID-023) and the Regulation 24 notice of examination hearings for the 2 July 2026 hearing.
- Epsom and Ewell Local Plan 2022-2040, Regulation 19 version for the 569 a year, 10,242 and 4,700 figures.
- Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, first meeting of the East Surrey Shadow Authority for the 1 April 2027 vesting day and the five councils being replaced.
- Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, emerging Local Plan for the submission library.
This page will be updated when the inspector reports. What is already being built and dug up is on Epsom roadworks and travel; what the market is doing is on Epsom house prices.
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