Town centre car parks could be redeveloped for homes

Town centre car parks in Surrey could be used for housing as a council explores options to avoid "concreting over green belt".

Gloucester Road car park, in Redhill, could be redeveloped to provide 60 new affordable and social rent flats.

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council is also looking for a developer to take on a similar project for 40 homes on the High Street car park in Horley, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The project costs are yet to be revealed but require final approval by the newly created East Surrey Council, which has to sign off deals worth more than £1m.

Ben Green told the council's executive committee: "If developed, these sites have the possibility of adding significant housing and affordable housing to the borough without loss of amenity."

House prices in the area are roughly 10 times higher than average incomes, according to an annual report from the council.

The report also said the authority saw approaches for homelessness support rise from 1,385 in 2022-23 to more than 1,900 in 2024-25.

Despite the council saying parking spaces would be kept, questions were raised about the impact of adding 100 homes and how the council-owned sites would be sold.

Councillor Michael Blacker said: "We are building a problem for our successors with absolutely nowhere to park."

"It would be lovely if we had vast swathes of brownfield land that we could build thousands of lovely affordable flats on, each with their own car parking space, but the reality is we don't," Green replied.

He suggested that brownfield sites, like car parks, were the council's best option.

"The only other alternative is we go start concreting over the greenbelt," he said.

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