Planning and Development – Development Issues
Density
Spelthorne has an area of only 5,116 hectares and as described above much of this space is not available for housing development. The urban area is only 35% of the total area. With 39,500 dwellings already in the Borough we have an average density of just about 22 per hectare. For the area not liable to flooding - the area where further development is possible - the density already averages nearly 24 houses per hectare.
With a further 3,300 units planned for the Borough the average density is set to increase by 10% to nearly 26 units per hectare. This density has to allow for roads, parking places and commercial units.
The answer to this problem does not lie in simply packing houses ever more densely. Careful planning is essential to make sure developments are not piecemeal blocks of flats, dropped in wherever there is a space big enough. At present the incentive for developers is to maximise the profit from a piece of land by maximising the density on every available site.