Councillors granted the derelict Legal & General site 299 homes on 9 September. The legal agreement must be signed by 29 January 2027 or permission is refused.

Reigate and Banstead’s Planning Committee has approved 299 homes, offices and a private health club at the derelict Legal & General headquarters in Kingswood. Not one of the homes will be affordable.

The committee voted on the evening of Wednesday 9 September. Its minutes record members concluding that the site “was not viable for providing this type of accommodation, this had been assessed by independent consultants” and that this “was disappointing for members of the Committee”.

The scheme was previewed on this site last week: 299 homes, no affordable housing sets out what is proposed, what the heritage bodies said and how the viability case was tested.

What the committee actually resolved

Two applications were before members. Both were granted.

  • 26/00463/F, full planning permission, GRANTED subject to conditions as recommended, plus the changes in the tabled addendum
  • 26/00464/LBC, listed building consent, GRANTED subject to conditions
  • Members added one informative to the full permission, asking for details of fire safety in the cycle stores under condition 58

Permission is not unconditional. The minutes attach two further requirements to the grant: completion of the section 106 legal agreement, and referral to the Secretary of State.

The register at the time of writing still shows the application as “Awaiting decision”, which is normal at this stage. The formal decision notice cannot issue until the legal agreement is signed.

The two things that could still stop it

Timeline showing what happens after the 9 September 2026 approval of the Kingswood scheme: referral to the Secretary of State with a 21 day call-in window, then completion of the section 106 agreement by 29 January 2027, after which the head of planning is authorised to refuse

The Secretary of State can take the decision away. Because the site is in the Green Belt, the council must refer the application to central government under the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2009. There is then a window of 21 days from the date of referral in which ministers can call it in and decide it nationally.

The legal agreement has a hard deadline. The officer report sets it at 29 January 2027, or a longer period if the council agrees. If nothing is signed by then, the head of planning and regulatory services is authorised to refuse permission outright. The stated reason would be the failure to secure open space, highway works, the travel plan, rights of way works, biodiversity net gain maintenance and the occupancy restrictions on the later living units.

That agreement is what turns the promises into obligations. It covers:

  • biodiversity net gain, maintained and monitored for 30 years, with a monitoring fee of £14,923.40
  • tactile paving, dropped kerbs and kerb build-outs on Furze Hill and St Monica’s Road, before occupation
  • a £5,000 travel plan monitoring fee, payable on first occupation
  • publicly accessible open space with a play area, east of Legal & General House, in perpetuity
  • occupancy restrictions keeping the Class C2 units in genuine later living use
  • a contribution or works to public rights of way BW46, FP47 and FP509, with the level agreed with Surrey County Council’s countryside access team

What members raised on the night

Three points are recorded in the minutes beyond the affordable housing vote.

Members “felt that the application offered suitable accommodation in the north of the borough”. They agreed that a construction traffic management plan was essential, which matters on Furze Hill and St Monica’s Road given the basement excavation the scheme requires.

On the public open space, members were told that a management fee would be charged to residents. The land is to be publicly accessible in perpetuity under the legal agreement, and the cost of looking after it falls on the people who buy the homes.

Two other local decisions the same night

The committee also settled two applications elsewhere in the borough.

14 to 20 Balcombe Road, Horley (26/00013/F) was granted. The scheme is eight flats over a flexible ground floor commercial unit, replacing the existing buildings. Members raised the lack of parking and whether a delivery lorry could turn; Surrey Highways objected to neither, citing the town centre location and vehicle tracking. Councillors added a condition of their own, requiring privacy screens to the sides of the front and rear terraces and balconies before the flats are occupied.

Tower House, 15 Tower Road, Tadworth (26/01219/HHOLD) was also granted. This is the retrospective application to replace two redundant brick chimney stacks with statues. It drew five representations citing harm to the conservation area and three in support. Members accepted that the statues reference the water tower behind the property and are not prominently visible.

What it means for you

If you live in Kingswood, nothing changes on the ground yet, and possibly not for months. The two gates above have to clear first, and the outer date on the second is the end of January 2027. Construction traffic is the next thing worth watching, because the management plan the committee called essential will come back as a condition discharge rather than a public hearing.

If you are house hunting in the borough, this is 299 homes that will include no affordable housing. Reigate and Banstead’s own average price is £480,481, on the June 2026 Land Registry index, and our page on Reigate house prices sets out what that looks like by property type.

If you want to follow what else is in the system, we keep a running page of Reigate planning news, and our guide to Reigate planning applications explains how to comment on one. Note that the rules on which applications reach councillors at all change on 31 October.

Sources

More from Reigate News: planning news, planning applications and house prices.