Maidstone Borough Council has succeeded in encouraging the construction of 935 more homes across the borough in the past three years than was strictly necessary.

Each year the Government subjects local authorities to a "Housing Delivery Test" to ensure they are not failing to meet the Government's ambition of seeing more homes built across the county.

The Government calculates how many homes the boroughs should have seen delivered over the previous three years and compares that with how many housing completions were actually achieved.

Between 2016 and 2019, Maidstone was tasked with delivering 2,642 homes, but it actually provided 3,577, which is 35% over the target.

That compares well with other boroughs.

Tonbridge and Malling was also above target. It needed to build 2,095 homes, but managed 2,451, which was 17% over target.

Tunbridge Wells, Swale and Sevenoaks all fell short of the Government's targets - reaching only 86%, 77% and 71% of the expected figure respectively.

There are penalties for councils that miss the target.

Tunbridge Wells has been told it must introduce an action plan to bring building back up to target.

Sevenoaks and Swale must introduce an action plan and additionally find a 20% buffer, that is to allocate 20% more land for development than is currently allocated in their five-year pipeline.

Any boroughs that achieve less than 45% of their target are to loose the ability to determine applications.

But while Maidstone is congratulating itself on avoiding penalties this year, the prospect is of a tougher future.

The council is required to increase its housing targets by around 40% in the Local Plan Review it is currently carrying out

At the same time the Government is aiming to pile on the pressure and next year, any borough that gets less than 75% towards its target will lose its powers to determine planning applications.

The chairman of the council's strategic planning and infrastructure committee, Cllr David Burton (Con), said: “This underlines the importance of MBC completing our Local Plan Review successfully and on time otherwise we would lose the protection from these sanctions and risk the penalty of planning permissions being granted by government inspectors in areas in which the council would rather not see development taking place."

The results of the 2019 Housing Delivery Test have only just been published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Government ordered the results be delayed until after the December General Election in case they upset the electorate.

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